“What we’re finding is that the parents… are looking for support while their young people are waiting and they’re coming to us, and that’s therefore increasing the demand that we’re trying to meet,” Douglas told the BBC.
“I think that just shows what’s going on in the wider system.”
One parent, from Berkshire, told the BBC that she had to “fight tooth and nail” to get support for her daughter’s anxiety through the NHS.
“The NHS are blockers, effectively. Honestly, the process is just ridiculous,” the mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
“Whereas I can ring up Response, and it’s ‘yep, no problem, we’ll put you on the waiting list and it’ll be a few weeks’.”
“What it’s done is given her these opportunities to discuss in a neutral environment things that are going on – it makes a really big difference to her wellbeing and her level-headedness,” she said.
‘No wrong door’
But Douglas said the charity was now looking for further funding to continue that work with more children.
“We’re wanting to do more, because we’re seeing more [children] that are coming through our door and our waiting list is about a year,” he said.
“We really want to get to those young people sooner so that they’re not sitting on our waiting list, as well as sitting on other waiting lists within the NHS as well.”
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust said it was working to “improve information, simplify processes, and ensure there was ‘no wrong door’ so that children and young people can get the right help quickly”.
“We know that pathways between services are not always as smooth as we would like them to be,” the trust said.
The BBC has also contacted Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Integrated Care Board for comment.