A father has reached 30,000 signatures on his petition calling for an inquiry into national mental health services for young people, but says it is still not enough.<\/p>\n
Tom Tunney, a father-of-two from Thatcham, is seeking a Government response into the waiting times currently being experienced by families waiting for mental health treatment for their children, which he says is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
Tom Tunney is trying to reach 100,000 signatures on his petition calling for an inquest into CAMHS waiting times<\/p>\n
He made the choice to start the petition following a nearly two-year wait for his child to be given support by the NHS child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be earlier intervention,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no communication where you are on the waiting list, it\u2019s like you\u2019re waiting on the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Tunney is seeking an inquiry as he says it would \u201cshow where the failures are and where children are losing their lives from this\u201d.<\/p>\n
Newbury MP Lee Dillon has said: \u201cFamilies across Newbury, Thatcham, Hungerford and West Berkshire are facing unacceptably long waits for children\u2019s mental health support, and this petition highlights what too many parents already know \u2013 the current system is failing young people.<\/p>\n
Newbury MP Lee Dillon (pic courtesy UK Parliament)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis petition sets out clear evidence of long delays, postcode\u2011based inequalities in access to care, and the knock\u2011on impact on school attendance and EHCP provision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s own response acknowledges that children and young people face long waits, variable quality of care and persistent inequalities, even though it has no current plans to launch an inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat position is deeply disappointing.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the scale of local and national concern, including cases where children have waited years for support, it\u2019s clear that an independent inquiry is needed to fully understand the failures across CAMHS and ensure meaningful improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have already raised this issue in Parliament through Written Questions and will continue pressing ministers for urgent action.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery child deserves timely, high\u2011quality mental health care, and I will continue working with families, schools, and health leaders to push for the system our children need and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The petition as of Friday 13 January has reached over 30,000 signatures<\/p>\n
Mr Tunney would like to see the mental health service reformed, resulting in shorter waiting times and suitable advice given to individual families rather than referring them to general advice on CAMHS\u2019 website.<\/p>\n
As well as this, Mr Tunney is calling for slower discharges for mental health-related patients and resolutions for autism treatment rather than a sign-off once diagnosed.<\/p>\n
He is urging people to sign the petition until it reaches 100,000 signatures, which would mean it gets considered for debate in Parliament.<\/p>\n
Mr Tunney said: \u201cOur children\u2019s school years are supposed to set them up for life, but if they are kept waiting for two years for help it greatly damages both their mental health and their chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead parents basically have to take on the full-time job of navigating the legal system and advocating for the support their child needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Tunney has received support from Chris Coghlan, MP for Dorking and Horley, who has shared the petition with his constituents.<\/p>\n
Chris Coghlan, Lib Dem MP for Dorking and Horley has shown support for the petition. Picture: Parliament UK<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cNHS children\u2019s mental health is in crisis.<\/p>\n
Families are left to fend for themselves, and children are unable to attend school \u2013 robbing them of an education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis petition should be brought forward to debate severe delays in CAHMS in Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says there is also a large gap in the provision of mental health medication (most commonly SSRIs) as GPs have told patients they are not qualified to prescribe them.<\/p>\n
SSRIs are a type of anti-depressants mainly used to treat the symptoms of depression, as well as other conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a postcode lottery as to whether you get prescribed them.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Tunney, a concerned parent from Thatcham, says “fighting for this is like it\u2019s a full time job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government replied to Mr Tunney\u2019s petition on December 19 last year, saying it had \u201cno current plans to establish an inquiry\u201d.<\/p>\n
The statement said: \u201cMultiple actions are in place to improve and reform NHS mental health services and provide children with timely access to appropriate care.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Mr Tunney says the response is not good enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt [the Government plans] all talks about things too far in the future, not those going through it right now whose lives may have already been affected by it; it doesn\u2019t offer current solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease share it with everyone, every signature is going to save someone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind every signature is a story of how a whole family is affected fighting for this like it\u2019s a full time job.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for NHS Berkshire said: \u201cWe recognise the strength of feeling reflected in the petition and understand how distressing long waits for children and young people\u2019s mental health support can be for families.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn West Berkshire, emotional wellbeing and mental health support is provided through a range of local services, including early help and prevention support, as well as specialist NHS CAMHS for children and young people with diagnosable mental health conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cReducing waiting times remains a key priority for the NHS and following focused quality improvement actions including more robust caseload management, introduction of a new job planning tool for clinicians and the development of new services, the average waiting time to receive initial help from Berkshire Healthcare CAMHS services in West Berkshire is now approximately seven weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions about a national inquiry into CAMHS sit with central government.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocally, the focus remains on improving access to timely, high-quality mental health support for children and young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since starting the petition, Mr Tunney has started a group online to record other families experiences of mental health services, named \u2018Stories of CAMHS\u2019.<\/p>\n
The link to the Facebook page<\/a> and petition <\/a>can be found here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A father has reached 30,000 signatures on his petition calling for an inquiry into national mental health services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[2864,102,1906,6623,12991,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-429584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-family","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-mentalhealth","12":"tag-newbury","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}