Two suicidal teens left in motel
Christchurch mother Raewyn Laurie says her self-harming 16-year-old daughter Kaelin could have taken her own life while she was placed in a motel ‘‘unsupervised’’ for three weeks.
The Ministry of Social Development (MSD)’s Youth Service organised for Kaelin and her girlfriend to stay in a ‘‘seedy’’ motel beside a bottle store after the pair ran away from home last month.
Kaelin’s girlfriend had been living with Kaelin and her mother for four months after a breakdown in her family. The pair had an explosive argument with Laurie in September.
The next day, the two Hagley Community College students told their school counsellor they did not want to live with her any more. They told her Kaelin was beaten up by her mother, which Kaelin later admitted was not true.
The counsellor put the teens in touch with the Youth Service, which helped them get emergency accommodation.
Laurie said no one contacted her about that. When she called the service, they would not give her the motel’s address for privacy reasons.
Laurie raised concerns because her daughter had experienced suicidal thoughts and self-harmed.
Running away from home was out of character and rang alarm bells about her suicide risk. Her girlfriend was self-harming too and had talked about suicide, she told the service.
Laurie said she was told not to worry, that her daughter and her friend had a case manager and were being checked almost daily.
She later learned that no one ever visited the two teens and that a case manager only saw Kaelin on October 27, more than a month after she made contact with the service. After three weeks in the motel, the two girls moved into a flat, with the help of Youth Service.
Laurie said that if a counsellor or a social worker had gone to check on them, they would have realised something was wrong.
A week ago, Kaelin messaged her mum late at night and asked her to come get her. Someone had supplied her and her friend with alcohol. Laurie believed that if she had not been awake and missed the text, her daughter could have taken her own life.
She was distraught her daughter was left unsupervised without regular checks in a motel. She said the teens were put in harm’s way.
When Kaelin left home, she had not self harmed for six months. She had gone back to high-risk self-harming, needing 24/7 monitoring, Laurie said.
Kaelin said sending her and her girlfriend to a motel was not fair because ‘‘it’s setting us up to die’’.
She started self harming about five years ago because it was becoming ‘‘a trend’’.
‘‘Teens were doing it for fun, to try it. I didn’t think it was cool but a year later I got the hang of why people do this to themselves. It’s like I’m addicted.
‘‘Almost every time that I do it I’m on the brink of wanting to kill myself. I have the thought of my dogs, my cat, my friends . . . and I come out on the other end. It’s hard to survive depression but you can do it,’’ Kaelin said.
MSD general manager service and contracts management Kelvin Moffatt said the youth service had worked with Kaelin since late August, when she got in touch to apply for a youth payment.
‘‘We were aware of Kaelin’s difficult home situation.’’
The application was granted on 26 September and a youth coach ‘‘was engaged to support her’’ on October 5.
Two attempts were made to arrange an appointment with her: once via text and then with a letter.
Kaelin missed her first appointment on October 18 but attended the next one on October 27, he said.
‘‘During this appointment, Kaelin advised that she was staying in a motel with another young person who was already staying in a motel. We would emphasise that the decision for her to stay there was her own and was not made by Work and Income or her youth coach.
‘‘She said that her school had provided her with support including breakfast each morning. Other issues discussed with her coach included arrangements with schooling, any other supports she needed and redirection of her benefit to pay for accommodation costs. The visit went well and Kaelin appeared upbeat about the progress being made.
‘‘Kaelin asked that her personal information not be disclosed to her mother at the time, and we have respected these wishes.’’
Young people sometimes needed short-term accommodation during a family breakdown, he said.
‘‘This short term accommodation provides them with somewhere safe and warm while a more suitable option is found.’’
A Hagley Community College spokeswoman said the school supported the two students right through the year and kept supporting them at school after they were placed in the motel.
''It's hard to survive depression but you can do it." Kaelin Laurie