A suicidal young girl was refused
NHS
mental-health counselling because she attends private school, her mother claims.
Because the youngster was being bullied at a state school, her despairing parents had only just moved her to a private school.
But when she was finally assessed by mental-health services at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust after months on the waiting list, her mother claims she was told: ‘If you can afford private school fees, you can afford private counselling.’
The woman, from Somerset, who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid further prejudice towards her daughter, said: ‘I was shocked and incensed.
‘I was even told that if I had kept my daughter at a state school, they would have helped her. It’s blatant discrimination.’
The girl, now 12, had been diagnosed as autistic a year earlier, but her symptoms had become more severe and her mental health had deteriorated.
She was referred to the Child and Adult Mental Health Service (CAMHS), which is part of the NHS, for help with her anxiety while she waited for treatment for her autism.
Her mother said: ‘I couldn’t work any more because I was looking after my daughter and fighting to get her the care she needed. My husband works in construction.
‘We are not rich. The only reason we moved her to a prep school is because we inherited a small amount of money, and we were so worried about her going downhill in her previous school.’
She said that after being bullied, her daughter was at a ‘very low ebb’, adding: ‘It culminated in her wanting to kill herself.
‘I was even worried about leaving her alone upstairs.’
After months on the CAMHS waiting list the woman and her daughter had a video-call assessment with a senior mental health practitioner. The mother said: ‘We were desperate, but she spent ten minutes talking to my daughter and it was clear she wasn’t interested. She displayed no empathy whatsoever.
‘She said that if we could afford private school fees we could afford to pay for private counselling. It was such an arrogant attitude.
‘She assumed we were rich – we aren’t. We pay our taxes, and the NHS should provide for all children.’
Her GP received a letter from the CAMHS practitioner written on the same day, that said: ‘Based on the additional information gathered, we will be closing the referral to CAMHS.’
The mother said: ‘They failed our child. I remember her sneering tone.’
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘There is no policy, formal or informal, to exclude children who attend private schools.’
It follows
last week’s Mail on Sunday exclusive about an eight-year-old boy in Richmond, south-west London
, who was refused an NHS assessment for a disabling joint condition because he went to a private school. Last night, Kingston and Richmond NHS Trust said it was investigating.
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