Report warns young people in Wales are being failed when they move from child to adult mental health services

A leading mental health charity says young people in Wales are being failed when they move from child to adult mental health services.

Mind Cymru is calling for the Welsh Government to make urgent changes to improve the system and says often the government’s guidelines are not being followed.

Nia Evans, Children and Young People Manager at Mind Cymru, said: “Young people have told us that their needs, thoughts, and feelings about moving to adult services are often unheard, or ignored.

“Often Welsh Government’s own guidance isn’t being followed, which is leaving young people without the support they are entitled to.

“Welsh Government must support Local Health Boards to make sure this doesn’t happen, change the way services are run and make sure our young people are being heard and properly cared for.”

A Mind Cymru report, based on interviews with young people about their experiences of moving from Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to Adult Mental Health Services, highlights five key areas where services are failing young people:

• Poor information offered to young people, particularly on their rights
• Inconsistent use and follow through of care and treatment plans
• High thresholds for SCAMHS and AMHS referrals to be accepted
• Feeling abandoned / cut off from SCAMHS
• Age still dominates decision making process for moving from SCAMHS to AMHS

Difficult

Nia Evans added: “Any one of these issues could make the process of moving from children’s services to adult services difficult for our young people. But often, more than one is happening at any one time.

“Our young people have a right to care and support from a mental health system that has been put in place to help them recover. Action must be taken immediately to make sure support systems are robust and doing the job they were designed to do.”

Mind Cymru is asking people to email their Member of the Senedd (MS) and amplify the voices of young people whose experiences are often unheard, and use the #SortTheSwitch hashtag on social media.

The full report is available here.