Mental health service reductions 'will put vulnerable children at risk'

By Jessica Lewis-Bell Friday, 25 March 2011

Proposed cuts to mental health services for children and young people in Lewisham will leave the most vulnerable at risk of harm, Unite has warned.

The trade union said nearly £500,000 of Lewisham’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) budget could be lost as a result of funding cuts from both Lewisham Primary Care Trust and Lewisham Borough Council.

The schools’ team and the specialist refugee and asylum seeker outreach worker posts are among those at risk under budget reduction plans. The special adolescent service will also be affected, which is one of only two adolescent forensic teams in the country that provides a mental health service to young offenders.

Unite regional officer Richard Munn said: "Yet again, Tory rhetoric that frontline NHS services will be safeguarded is proven to be untrue. Children with mental health problems are some of the most vulnerable members of society, so early intervention is therefore vital to reduce the problems in later life."

Unite hopes to involve local Lewisham MPs Jim Dowd, Heidi Alexander and Joan Ruddock in a campaign to stop the cuts.

Munn said that without the early interventions offered by CAMHS, urban areas like Lewisham will "deteriorate".

He added: "Across the borough, other much needed support services for children and young people are being lost or reduced, so collectively this is a poorly thought through review by the management.

"Potentially, thousands of children, now and in the future, could be adversely affected by the scale of these cuts."

Spokesman for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are working closely with our health, social care and voluntary sector partners to ensure we can maintain high quality services, with fewer resources.

"Our priority is to make sure children and young people in Lewisham get the care they need, when they need it. Reduced resources mean we simply cannot continue providing services in the same way as in the past, but also offers an opportunity to look at how we deliver our services. We are confident that the proposed changes will not reduce the quality care we provide."