Improving children and young people's mental health services in Oldham

Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and Trafford Healthwatch worked together to gather the experiences of parents and carers whose children use, or who have used local mental health services. A total of 90 families from Oldham took part in the review and 35 interviews were conducted with professionals in schools and local services. 

The report found that there were difficulties getting referrals and experiences of long waits for first appointments. Parents and teachers were concerned about the lack of communication between schools and services which impact on providing holistic support. Comments suggest that Autism and ADHD are dealt with in isolation by services and young people with a dual condition are considered too complex and are refused or discharged from the service. Due to the turnover of staff some families had more than one therapist, making it harder to develop trust with the professional and reduces the effectiveness of talking therapy treatments. Parents want to know where to go in the event of a crisis and want front-line staff in urgent care to be trained to understand and respond appropriately.

A number of recommendations were made in the report relating to prevention, timely access, knowledge of services, holistic support, joined up working, communication, training, discharge and reviews.