Soph Hopkins was just 15 when persistent bullying, stress and anxiety started to overwhelm her, but it was not until she took a deliberate overdose and ended up in hospital that she was taken seriously. Even then, long waiting lists meant that support was patchy and slow.
Campaigners have warned that many young people such as Miss Hopkins, now 20, are forced to reach a crisis point before they are referred to mental health services.
“I was 15 and had been bullied since before year seven and everything was starting to get to me”, she said. “I was asking all these questions about myself. Why is this always happening to me? Will this be my whole life? Will I always be bullied? With the pressure to do well at school and decide what I wanted my future to be, it was all getting on top of me.”
She turned to her GP for help but was warned that it would be difficult to access mental health services. “My GP said there was a really long waiting list for child and adult mental health services and said it wasn’t something they would deal with as it was only stress. I did talk to a member of staff [at school] that I trusted and she said I should just take my mind off it and I would be fine. I think people thought I was attention-seeking.”
In a survey of parents by the charity YoungMinds, more than 80 per cent said that their child had been treated only when their condition reached a critical level.
Advertisement
One in four said that they had to wait more than 12 months for treatment for their child while nearly three quarters said that child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) did not have the resources to meet the needs of young people.
It was only when a teacher found a suicide note that Miss Hopkins had written in class that her situation was taken more seriously.
“I wrote a suicide note saying it was all too much and I couldn’t cope any more. I took a lot of paracetamol and medications that I shouldn’t have taken and got rushed to hospital and was there for two nights. I took about five or six overdoses. I’m so glad they found the note. I wanted someone to realise,” she said.
Miss Hopkins, who campaigns for greater awareness about mental health issues, was told that waiting times for child mental health services were at least three months and received only sporadic appointments. Her school stepped in and demanded that she was given support so that she could complete her GCSEs.
“Long waiting lists means that young people wonder how they will cope. After I went into hospital for self-harm I did start getting seen a lot quicker. It’s a cry for help, trying to get noticed,” she said.
Advertisement
The patchy provision meant that Miss Hopkins was passed between different units and teams, with little continuity of care. Her condition — borderline personality disorder — was no diagnosed until she was 19.
“Young people’s mental health shouldn’t be at the forefront of cuts. It needs more funding and waiting lists have to be reduced. And each school needs a specific worker to communicate with,” she said.