"Unable to be seen"

My young child has been depressed with suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-harm. In addition to this they also have disordered eating. This has been ongoing for over a year and when we finally were able to be assessed by the Children's and Adolescents Mental Health Services team (CAMHS) the onsite psychiatrist was extremely concerned for my child and immediately started them on anti-depressants, requested we have them see an eating disorder specialist and have ongoing psychology sessions. We were advised there would be an approximately 6 month waiting time before we could be onboarded to the CAMHS team for my child’s mental health care and to see a private psychologist in the interim to make sure they did not get any worse.

Not even 2 months later CAMHS called to inform me they were discharging my child from their services as they did not have the staff to see her, and they did not rank high enough to remain on the list. In addition, they claimed that as we had managed to find a private psychologist and dietician to see my child about their issues my child did not require their services. There had not been any improvement to my child’s mental health and they were about to undergo a big change in their circumstances by beginning a new school. My child’s private psychologist involves a 2 hour round trip to see them, plus the 1 hour appointment, meaning they lose a large chunk of one day every fortnight.

I am absolutely astounded that when our young people are currently experiencing record high numbers of mental health issues there seem to be even less psychologists, child psychiatrists and pediatricians available to help them. The fact I seemingly need to wait for my child to be actively attempting to kill themself before they can be seen by CAMHS seems ridiculous and I believe will simply lead to my child, and many more children, having worsening mental health issues resulting in hospitalisations, and worse, increasing suicide rates.

I am simply fortunate in that I was not only able to find an available psychologist, but that I can also afford to take them there. I believe many families would not be able to and their young people will continue to worsen. My heart goes out to these people and I am left asking why our health system is so understaffed in so many specialties.