{"id":660801,"date":"2026-10-29T16:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660801\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T16:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:46:10","slug":"concern-over-cut-to-young-peoples-mental-health-crisis-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660801\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern over cut to young people’s mental health crisis scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerns have been raised over the reduction of a specialist mental health support service for children and young people in the north west.<\/p>\n

The Card Before You Leave scheme ensures young people experiencing a mental health crisis who present at a hospital’s emergency department are given a written appointment with specialists before leaving.<\/p>\n

The Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) said due to financial pressures the scheme is now only operating on a Monday to Friday basis and not at all on weekends and bank holidays.<\/p>\n

Londonderry GP Dr Joe McEvoy said the reduction was a further “chipping away at an already threadbare service”.<\/p>\n

“It’s already difficult for families when they’re dealing with a young person who is distressed to know how they should manage it,” McEvoy told BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement, WHSCT said the reduction was introduced in August as “part of wider savings measures” and would remain under review.<\/p>\n

It said the reduction in the scheme’s operating hours applied only to young people “who present out of hours and are assessed as low risk”.<\/p>\n

“These patients are now assessed by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) on the next working day rather than the next calendar day,” the trust said.<\/p>\n

It added: “There has been no change to arrangements for young people assessed as high risk, who continue to receive the appropriate assessment and support based on their clinical needs.”<\/p>\n

The trust said it remains “committed to providing safe and effective mental health services for children and young people”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns have been raised over the reduction of a specialist mental health support service for children and young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-660801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}