‘We must do better’ on mental health support for Peterborough youngsters - NHS manager admits

Kathryn Goose, commissioning manager for children and young people’s mental health at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), admitted “we must do better” during a virtual summit held with Peterborough pupils.

Ms Goose was reacting after hearing emotional stories from several young people, including one who said: “I was struggling with my depression and mental health and anxiety so decided to seek help. Firstly, I went to my doctor and received a referral to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) to go and seek help.

“I was offered a group of counselling sessions focused on anxiety and depression, but the waiting list was huge and I’d have to wait months to receive a date for counselling.

“This huge setback made me doubt if it was worth the wait and wonder if I should take myself off the waiting list completely, but I decided it was incredibly important and was something I needed help with, so instead I went to Centre 33 (in Peterborough) which offered private counselling and the waiting list was much shorter.

“I began my counselling within three weeks and it was incredibly important in improving my mental health.

“I’m so glad I found somewhere with a shorter waiting list which allowed me to begin to get help and improve my mental health.”

The meeting was organised by Peterborough Citizens UK and chaired by pupils from Ormiston Bushfield Academy.

It featured testimony from learners at The King’s School, Thomas Deacon Academy, St John Fisher Catholic High School and The Peterborough School.

It was stated during the meeting that the CCG - which is funded per person below the national average - is one of the 12 worst performing CCGs in the country for waiting times for an initial mental health assessment.

Addressing the issue, Ms Goose responded: “We were really poor in terms of our waiting times prior to Covid. At the beginning of Covid there was a shift in that, which was around how some of the services changed their assessment process, but it was also around during March, April and May when we have a lot fewer referrals so services could get through some of that backlog and waiting lists came down.

“That has now changed and waiting lists are now going back up. It’s something we’re very aware of, we’ve had many conversations about this and we know we need to do better than we are.”

She said nationally there had been a focus on physical health over mental health, with a need to lobby for greater resources for the latter.

She added: “I don’t think we’re there yet and I think we need to pursue that.”