A Surrey teenager died waiting for therapy. What hope do adults have – and how should this affect the debate on disability benefits?
This Writer has been reading The Guardian‘s report on Jen Bridges-Chalkley, who died in 2021, aged 17, while the NHS faffed about and did nothing.
Jen was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at 10 and with autistic spectrum disorder a year later – long after mother Sharren originally approached her GP when Jen was five, and again when she was seven. Why did it take so long? And, knowing she had these conditions, why did the health service delay treating her when mental illness reared its ugly head?
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There was evidence of self-harm when Jen was 11 – cutting her hair with a razor and starving herself because she was worried about her Sats exams. She was referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) but the psychiatrist who triaged her said said “no moderate to severe mental health issues were identified”.
She was bullied in high school and her mental health again suffered when GCSEs loomed – and although she was given a “be aware” code so teachers knew she had needs, no education, health and care plan (EHCP) was put in place for her until 2019. It would have outlined her needs and disabilities and the support she required and may be requested by schools and parents, although Sharren said she was never told this.
Jen began having angry outbursts and struggled with eating and sleeping. Sharren said she started to talk about suicide at 14, telling her year manager (a school staff member) that she planned to kill herself. The year manager contacted CAMHS, and Jen told a mental health nurse there was a high chance she would commit suicide.
But she didn’t go on a waiting list for therapy until four months later, and remained there for most of the next two years.
She stopped going to school, which helped with her anxiety (her education was approached by different means), but her mother took her to Accident & Emergency four times between 2019 and 2021 because of suicidal thinking. On discharge, she was told a doctor would visit after the crisis team had finished with her, but this never happened.
The failures continued to add up and you can read the article for the full list.
The article quotes the coroner’s report at her inquest in April of that year:
The coroner said her suicide could have been avoided if she had received the support she needed “in a timely manner”. It was “a multi-agency failure”, he concluded in the report, which is a devastating document: 81 pages of missed opportunities, bad communication and poor decision-making.
“There was a failure of the agencies to work effectively together to ensure that Jen’s needs were met,” the coroner wrote. Safeguarding failure; failure by educational establishments; failure by child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs). “For much of the time between May 2018 and June 2020, she was on a waiting list for therapy from the psychology team and was awaiting assessment.” He concluded that Camhs had failed “properly to assess, diagnose and treat Jen … in order to manage her conditions and minimise her risk of suicide”.
The coroner highlighted the delay in the provision of an EHCP. He wrote that Jen’s special educational needs had been apparent since primary school; that there was a missed opportunity to issue a plan; and that her needs weren’t met. “This probably contributed to her rising anxiety and deteriorating self-esteem and mental state, including her suicidality,” he wrote.
This catalogue of failures relates to just one young person – who never made it to adulthood.
This Writer is thinking of the many millions of people, who are adults, claiming disability benefits for mental health reasons. How many of them have had treatment delayed indefinitely by NHS services in similar ways? How does this affect their eligibility for benefit and how will it do so in the future, if/when the Labour government goes through with its plan to restrict access to the benefit in the future in order to save money?
It seems to me that the tragedy of this girl could foreshadow a much wider disaster for people of all ages, if Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer insist on prioritising money over people – and if Wes Streeting continues to put cash into profit-making companies rather than investing it in healthcare.
I can foresee huge numbers of people with mental illnesses turning to self-harm or suicide after being denied treatment and benefits – as has happened many times before with people whose deaths I have reported. That’s blood on government hands – but they never accept the blame.
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Teenager died waiting for therapy. What hope do adults have?
A Surrey teenager died waiting for therapy. What hope do adults have – and how should this affect the debate on disability benefits?
This Writer has been reading The Guardian‘s report on Jen Bridges-Chalkley, who died in 2021, aged 17, while the NHS faffed about and did nothing.
Jen was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at 10 and with autistic spectrum disorder a year later – long after mother Sharren originally approached her GP when Jen was five, and again when she was seven. Why did it take so long? And, knowing she had these conditions, why did the health service delay treating her when mental illness reared its ugly head?
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
There was evidence of self-harm when Jen was 11 – cutting her hair with a razor and starving herself because she was worried about her Sats exams. She was referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) but the psychiatrist who triaged her said said “no moderate to severe mental health issues were identified”.
She was bullied in high school and her mental health again suffered when GCSEs loomed – and although she was given a “be aware” code so teachers knew she had needs, no education, health and care plan (EHCP) was put in place for her until 2019. It would have outlined her needs and disabilities and the support she required and may be requested by schools and parents, although Sharren said she was never told this.
Jen began having angry outbursts and struggled with eating and sleeping. Sharren said she started to talk about suicide at 14, telling her year manager (a school staff member) that she planned to kill herself. The year manager contacted CAMHS, and Jen told a mental health nurse there was a high chance she would commit suicide.
But she didn’t go on a waiting list for therapy until four months later, and remained there for most of the next two years.
She stopped going to school, which helped with her anxiety (her education was approached by different means), but her mother took her to Accident & Emergency four times between 2019 and 2021 because of suicidal thinking. On discharge, she was told a doctor would visit after the crisis team had finished with her, but this never happened.
The failures continued to add up and you can read the article for the full list.
The article quotes the coroner’s report at her inquest in April of that year:
This catalogue of failures relates to just one young person – who never made it to adulthood.
This Writer is thinking of the many millions of people, who are adults, claiming disability benefits for mental health reasons. How many of them have had treatment delayed indefinitely by NHS services in similar ways? How does this affect their eligibility for benefit and how will it do so in the future, if/when the Labour government goes through with its plan to restrict access to the benefit in the future in order to save money?
It seems to me that the tragedy of this girl could foreshadow a much wider disaster for people of all ages, if Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer insist on prioritising money over people – and if Wes Streeting continues to put cash into profit-making companies rather than investing it in healthcare.
I can foresee huge numbers of people with mental illnesses turning to self-harm or suicide after being denied treatment and benefits – as has happened many times before with people whose deaths I have reported. That’s blood on government hands – but they never accept the blame.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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