A Fermanagh mother has spoken out about her fear that her son may die if he does not get adequate mental health support.

She has called for greater interventions for children’s mental health and more support for children and young people facing mental health problems.

Jade Davis has spoken out about what she believes are inadequacies with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) through waiting lists and claimed mental health services for children are not fit for purpose.

She has fought to get appointments for her 12-year-old son over the past five years and reached out to “higher powers” such as First Minister, Michelle O’Neill with her son now attending regular appointments.

She said: “With adults, there is a lot of stuff out there. I have seen family friends trying to get help for their family, there are loads of things out there for adults and there are not enough services for children. There needs to be a change somewhere.”

“Since Covid, it has got a lot worse," said Ms. Davis who added: "It is a child’s life, you can’t afford to be waiting around for three to four years waiting for them to be accessed.”

This has had a huge impact on her family as she explained: “My own mental health is suffering over it all. I am attending my own doctor at the moment and have been referred to the adult’s mental health team.”

Ms. Davis continued: "I am terrified that I'm going to get up someday and my son is not going to be here because he's not getting the help he needs.”

She described how five years ago, her son’s primary school advised her to seek support for her son when he was seven and the lengths they went to support the child: “They were concerned, he was having angry outbursts, and they were concerned about his mental state, he had very low self-esteem and he had anxiety and things like that.”

She claimed her son was later discharged after one appointment. Her son has now been offered weekly appointments and is waiting for an assessment. She hopes that this will bring an end to some of the roadblocks she has faced in seeking support for him.

She described one terrifying incident in recent weeks where her son had an outburst and later got onto the roof of his school: “CAHMS didn’t seem to be picking up about how he can escalate so quickly and how he is so impulsive.

“He had been to the canteen, and he got two bits of toast and he would try and push the boundaries a lot. He asked the teacher if he could go and get a third piece of toast, break time was over and he was told ‘No, you can't’.

“He ran outside and climbed up on the roof over a piece of toast, that's how dangerous it is. He could be in the house today and you could say no to him about something and he could run straight across the front of a car. He has no sense of danger whatsoever.”

She described other incidents such as her son running away from home following an outburst: "I had to walk around the forestry at Necarne at 12 o'clock at night looking for him because he had absconded from the house and I had to get to police and everything and then whenever they did finally get them and get them home. I couldn't get him settled."

Ms. Davis contacted First Minister, Michelle O’Neill for help and she believes that helped escalate the situation: “They [CAMHS] were not taking me seriously and that's why I had to go to Michelle O’Neill because obviously with it coming from a higher power, they did sit up and listen then.

“It shouldn’t take for you to go to some of those people [such as politicians], to get them to listen."

She advised others in the same situation as her to seek help and support in accessing services.

“There are some people out there that maybe have no support or they are not clued up, they don't know that they can go to other people for help to try and get CAHMS to do something.”

Her son has now been offered weekly appointments and is waiting for assessment, she hopes that this will bring an end to some of the roadblocks she has faced in seeking support for her son.

A spokesperson for the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) said: “These concerns have been shared with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), however, due to patient/client confidentiality we would not be responding to individual cases.

“The CAMHS aims to deliver timely, responsive, compassionate care to the children, young people and their families in receipt of CAMHS care. The Trust works in partnership with family and carers in respect of the care, treatment and support arrangements for individuals using our services. In collaboration with all children services, we are committed to involving young peoples’ voices in the delivery of the service.

“If a patient/client or their relative has any issue in relation to their treatment or the service they have received, we would encourage them to raise these issues through the Trust's comments and complaints system - the Patients' Advocate Office.”