A safety investigation has warned that young people with complex mental health needs are being put at significant risk, by being placed on general children's wards in England., who spent several months in a children's ward.The majority had faced similar difficulties getting appropriate support.
NHS England says it has an ongoing transformation programme to improve mental health services for children and young people, including adapting hospital environments for those with "sensory needs". Her family says she found the noisy environment traumatic. Despite having agency mental health nurses watching her 24 hours a day, she ran away from the hospital once and was able to seriously harm herself on a number of occasions. She was also restrained numerous times.
"She is classed as too vulnerable to go onto a mental health unit," Jo-Ann said. "She has fallen into no man's land." The report said paediatric wards contained many self-harm risks, including ligature points, and that they were busy, noisy places which were unsuitable for children experiencing a mental health crisis, or with sensory needs, for instance, because they have autism.Image caption,HSIB said on one paediatric ward there were more than 70 security incidents over three months relating to children with high-risk behaviours. Most involved the young person being physically restrained.