CHILDREN 'BEING TREATED IN WARDS FULL OF DRUG ADDICTS'

Children with severe mental health problems are being treated as
inpatients alongside hardened drug addicts and alcoholics in adult
units. Patients of 14 are being sent to mental health wards following
the closure of a pioneering psychiatric unit specialising in treating
youngsters.

Woodside in Epsom, Surrey, was one of only 80 units helping young
people recover from mental health problems including self-harm,
depression and eating disorders.

However, Surrey Oaklands NHS trust has decided it cannot afford the
12-bed unit. Instead, it has placed at least six teenagers in adult
wards, a move branded "totally unacceptable" by mental health
campaigners.

Those affected include Raymond Bridges, whose 14-year-old son Stuart
has spent the past three weeks in a secure room on an adult ward at
Epsom hospital. Health officials have now offered Stuart a bed in
Orpington hospital, Kent, which represents a 75-mile round-trip for
his parents.

Officials took four days to find a bed in an adult unit for Stuart, a
cannabis user, after he started suffering severe paranoia and
hallucinations. He is now being treated with anti-psychotic drugs on a
ward where adults are treated for drug and alcohol addiction. "It's
disturbing for us to see him like this," said Mr Bridges. "He feels
rejected, and at the moment he is only 30 minutes away. When he's
moved we'll only be able to visit him at weekends. He's not getting
the attention he needs."

In Britain, there are just 900 beds for children in mental health
units, and these are in great demand. Recent research found that fewer
than 40 per cent of requests for admission were accepted.

Guidelines from the Royal College of Psychiatrists say that adult
units are unable to cater for the needs of children, and are unsuitable.

Surrey Oaklands NHS trust said there would always be a "small number"
of patients who would have to be placed in adult beds "usually while
an adolescent bed is located".

But Mind, the mental health charity, said the lack of beds for
adolescents highlighted the lack of investment in mental health care.
"This is unacceptable," said chief executive, Richard Brook. "It's an
indication that the Government is promising to improve services, but
is failing to deliver."