Mental health services in Hillingdon are failing young people and have reached 'breaking point', according to the authors of a damning report.

Watchdog group Healthwatch Hillingdon and charity Hillingdon Mind say 'insufficient' priority is being given to children's mental health in the borough.

Parents interviewed for a report due out tomorrow (Thursday, December 11) described spending months stuck on waiting lists, while youngsters said they were not being listened to.

The authors are calling for the launch of a new 'Task and Finish' group to establish a long-term plan for tackling these issues.

Jeff Maslen, chair of Healthwatch Hillingdon, said: “Young people are being failed. There's no question about that. The quality of these services isn't as good as it should be.

“Kids have to wait a long time before they are seen, unless they are very severe. Young people aren't getting the treatment they should at an early enough stage, with the result that their symptoms and problems become worse, so when they do eventually get treatment there's a bigger problem to deal with.”

He added: "We’ve heard from parents how they cannot access services and that they are stuck for months on waiting lists. Clinicians have told us that services are at breaking point.

"To make progress, we need every agency working together and [to] be willing to ask challenging questions about what services we have in place and what more we can do to help when long waits for services are inevitable. These debates should also include the involvement of young people and their families, which we believe is long overdue."

The interim report, titled Listen to Me!, highlights poor funding and a lack of joined-up early intervention services as problems. It warns that commissioners and service providers are struggling with increased demand as more complex cases are being identified, which it says is hindering both the prevention of mental illness among young people and early-stage treatment.

Six young people who use mental health services in the borough were interviewed for the report, along with their parents and carers. Another 38 service users aged between 12 and 18 were surveyed.

Many said they struggled to understand the system and feared being stigmatised for using mental health services when they wanted to be seen as 'normal'.

The Task and Finish group would be set up by Hillingdon Council and Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), comprising voluntary organisations, police, youth services, GPs and other practitioners.

Additionally, the report's authors are calling for a borough-wide campaign to make it acceptable to discuss mental health issues.

Christopher Geake, director of Hillingdon Mind, said: “It’s important we learn from what young people and families are telling us about the battle to access services and to be heard. Their stories highlight the need for more prevention and early intervention services, and joining up the commissioning of young people’s services across health, social care, housing, voluntary sector and youth services. Making integration a reality for young people is essential. Without services that link together effectively young people will suffer and services will continue to struggle to meet needs.”

Stephen Vaughan-Smith, governing body member and mental health clinical lead for Hillingdon CCG, which commissions health services in the borough, said: “Hillingdon CCG welcomes this snapshot report on CAMHS [Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services]. We recognise the important issues raised and agree that working with local partners in an integrated fashion to address needs from prevention and early intervention through to the provision of in-patient care will provide the greatest benefit to our young people using these services. It also allows us to align how we utilise scarce funding to support our local population. The CCG has recently invested in CAMHS as part of a transformation programme for children’s and young people’s services and will use this report and the planned follow up report to help inform our future work in this area.

"We are very keen to promote the patient voice, particularly young people, in both informing and developing the services we commission and welcome this contribution and Healthwatch’s involvement in our multi-agency plans to deliver improved patient and public involvement, in particular improved health information to assist people in managing their health and accessing the appropriate service.”

The findings come after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the NHS trust that provides mental health services in Hillingdon among the four most likely to be putting patients at risk.