Nigel Williams: The young of Northern Ireland face a mental health crisis

From a speech by the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children, given in Belfast

Monday 28 February 2005 01:00 GMT
Comments

It was a cold February night last year. Accompanied by the local youth worker Stephen, I drove around a small part of north and west Belfast. As we went up a street, he said in a matter-of-fact way: "The young man in that house took his own life a few weeks ago; the girl in that house has been self harming and tried to drug overdose; the boy in that house died last week a few weeks after his friend had taken his own life ..." and so it went on.

How can it be right if hard pressed front-line staff spend days trying to secure a bed in hospital for a suicidal young man, whose parents can't cope, and is under threat from the paramilitaries because he owes drug money? How can it be right that a number of mental health beds for adolescents have been closed for some months because of serious staffing problems? How can it be right for a GP to be told that consultant psychiatrists don't have time to see young people with serious mental health problems - they can only deal with emergencies?

How can it be right that a high school principal is so concerned for the welfare of his pupils that he has to go and beg local businesses to help fund the provision of a trained counsellor? How can it be right that the future of some ground-breaking projects in the field of prevention will stop because the Executive Programme Children's Fund is to end? I do not think it is overstating matters to say that the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Northern Ireland are in crisis.

Let us send a clear message to the Government about what we need; a clear message to the paramilitaries to get off the backs of our young people; a clear message to those who want to harm or abuse children and young people; a clear message to everyone involved in this issue that we must work together for the sake of all.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in