Blackpool Children Waiting 47 Days For Mental Health Support
Young people in Blackpool are being left waiting for specialist mental health care.
Children in Blackpool referred for specialist mental health care by their GP are waiting an average of 47 days for their first referral appointment.
Meanwhile, 62 children were admitted for in-patient mental health care in Blackpool in the last five years.
15 children staying at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust’s mental health units (LCSFT) needed stays of between one and three months, with a further four children staying for over 93 days.
The data was sourced by the media literacy charity The Student View.
A spokesperson for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who provide Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), said: “The CAMHS service in Blackpool works with our partners to offer emotional wellbeing support and care to children and young people on the Fylde coast. Supporting the CAMHS service is the Youtherapy young people’s counselling service and the CASHER emergency response team providing support seven days per week.
“As all CAMHS services, we are aware of increasing demands; we have been working across Lancashire and South Cumbria to transform the services to offer provision that meet the needs of our families and within national waiting times.”
Cllr Lynn Williams, Cabinet Member responsible for Children’s Services, said:
“Blackpool CAMHS service works with our partners, including education settings, the local authority and voluntary sector, to offer emotional wellbeing support and care to children and young people on the Fylde Coast.
“Supporting the CAMHS service is the Youtherapy (our young people’s counselling service) and the CASHER emergency response team providing support seven days per week. As all CAMHS services, we are aware of the increasing demand on our services; we have been working, as part of a Care Partnership established across Lancashire and South Cumbria to transform our services, in line with the THRIVE model, so as to offer services that meet the needs of our families and within national waiting times.
“The redesign seeks to build on the evidence that implementing THRIVE results in reduced waiting times. The redesign will provide robust community support for children, young people and their families so that hospital admissions and in-patient beds are only utilised when absolutely needed and when the evidence base suggests appropriate.”