'Our children deserve more': Protesters demand better from young mental health services
Parents protesting over the state of young people's mental health services in Shropshire declared: "Our children deserve so much more."
About 50 protesters campaigned outside the base of Shropshire's children and adolescent mental health service in Shrewsbury today.
It followed claims the service had too few psychiatrists to cover all of the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin boroughs.
Jigsaw Family Group, which works with hundreds of youngsters diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, said it organised the protest at Coral House in Harlescott Lane after two psychiatrists left the already-stretched service on Friday.
Lisa Roberts, one of the group, said she has sent her 16-year-old son to a special boarding school in Lancashire as he has autism and cannot be cared for in Shropshire.
The mother-of-three said: "We've had many families contact us to say their consultants have left.
"This can't continue to happen. This department has been in crisis for the last 10 years.
"Given the right support we can harness the potential of these children and they can do fantastically well.
"My son has huge amounts of anxiety but he's just passed a college course to become a mechanic, he is just brilliant.
"If we got the support for these children it would have a major impact on the demand on the police service.
"We need better communication between the services.
"Shropshire's health services will be given £312 million from the Government and we want £12m of that for mental health services."
Cherida Hughes, from Copthorne, Shrewsbury, was at the protest with eight-year-old Mir who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD a year ago.
As Mir held her hands over her ears to block out the noise, mother-of-five Mrs Hughes said she was waiting for a review of Mir's medication but her consultant left without them knowing.
"After nearly four years of fighting we got Mir a diagnosis," Mrs Hughes said.
"Since starting medication Mir is far more controlled but we were having appointments every six weeks but we rang for the last appointment about increasing her medication and were told the consultant has left.
"It's a big worry. Mir's had quite a rough time with school and for the first two years of her education she spent more time out of school than in. It makes me feel annoyed, it is like we don't matter."
Amanda Godfrey, of South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (SSSFT) which runs the children's and adolescent mental health service, said it has five permanent consultant psychiatrists and was actively recruiting more staff.
She said: "SSSFT provide a 0-25 emotional health and wellbeing service across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin in partnership with The Children’s Society, Kooth and Healios. This contract commenced in May 2017.
"Working as a partnership we have increased the range of emotional health support for young people and they are able to access this online with Kooth or via drop-ins at Beam without needing a referral into a service.
"We are actively recruiting more psychiatrists, and are delighted that a new consultant has been appointed and will start in May.
"There is a national shortage of child psychiatrists and the service also uses a number of locum psychiatrists.
"These are psychiatrists with the same qualifications as those that SSSFT employ directly but are instead employed through an agency.
"We are working with a number of agencies at the moment to find suitably qualified staff to work with the team but this can be a lengthy process and can take some time.
"We have also been working closely with commissioners to improve general staffing levels in the specialist mental health element of the service and an additional seven staff are joining the Access and Brief Intervention Service."