FOLLOWING the inquest into the tragic death of a mentally ill East Devon teenager, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton Mel Stride has confirmed that it is the Government's "absolute priority" to ensure patients requiring mental or physical health treatment are treated equally.
As previously reported by the Echo, 15-year-old George Werb from Colyton, who suffered from a rare psychosis and depression, died after walking in front of a train near Axminster last year, hours after being permitted home leave from the Priory Hospital in Southampton.
His two day inquest was littered with a series of shocking revelations about the state of the country's mental health system.
The inquest heard that after being referred by his GP to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Exeter, it took around 10 months before his first appointment.
He was diagnosed as suffering from a rare psychosis involving persistent delusion disorder with depression and prescribed anti-psychotic medication.
But due to the nature of his illness he was convinced the medication was damaging his brain. And after refusing to take more than three doses, he was admitted to hospital.
Consultant child psychiatrist Doctor Divik Seth said he would routinely phone between 20 and 30 units across the country to see if they had a free bed, and said the problem was getting worse.
The inquest heard that sometimes children are kept in police custody beds because there is nowhere else for them to go.
There were no beds available at the nearest unit in Plymouth, so George was admitted to Huntercombe Hospital almost 200 miles away in Maidenhead.
But George's parents removed him from there after visiting him three weeks later – they said his bed had no sheets on it, the curtains were too short, he was still living out of his suitcase and he looked dishevelled and unclean.
It emerged during the hearing that George and his family weren't offered family therapy sessions at the Priory Hospital where he was subsequently placed, due to the distance from the hospital to their home.
And Neil Law, the therapy services manager for Southampton and Solent, confirmed the distance from a hospital affected the treatment received.
He said the issue of the shortage of psychiatric beds was a national problem and there was a difficulty at the hospital, reflected nationally, to recruit psychology professionals at the ward.
MP Neil Parish, whose constituency includes Colyton, confirmed that the Government has committed an investment of around £400m to improve access to modern, evidence-based psychological therapies over the next four years.
He said the funding will ensure the full roll-out of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy programme which offers increasing numbers of people across England access to approved therapy for mental health conditions.
"The tragic loss of George stands as a stark reminder that depression is a serious illness," he said.
"My heart goes out to his friends and family, in particular to his parents Joanne and Justin Werb.
"I hope that the conclusions of the inquest are used to learn the lessons of the past in ensuring our communities have access to the best available mental health treatments.
"Improving mental health services is an absolute priority for this Government.
"The overarching goal is to ensure that mental health has equal priority with physical health, and that everyone who needs it has timely access to the best available treatment."
