All the lost daughters. All the lost sons. All our failed children
Aaliyah Sutherland would have been, should have been, 19 next month.
She may have been a student, might have started work, but would certainly have been a loved and loving daughter and sister. Instead, her mother will remember Aaliyah on her birthday, as she remembers her every day, a young girl suffering such mental anguish she took her own life when just 13.
Her mother Lisa today joins other parents, doctors and experts calling for urgent action to dramatically improve mental health ser vices accused of failing too many young Scots.
It has been five years since Aaliyah died, years marked by a series of official reviews and funding promises, but her mother fears little has changed: “Aaliyah got lost in the system and there are still children being lost in the system. The pain is unbearable.”
Overstretched and, according to doctors, under- resourced, Scotland’s Child and Adolescent Me n t a l He a l t h Services ( CAMHS) is meant to begin treating 90% of referred youngsters within 18 weeks. However, almost 40% of young referrals wait longer while almost one in 10 wait more than a year for treatment to begin.
Doctors today echo families’ calls for urgent action and warn the pandemic threatens to turn a crisis into a catastrophe.
Leading clinician Justin Williams today reveals he is so disillusioned that he is quitting: “Our services have suffered years of neglect and disinterest. The government claims they have been increasing resources. They have not.”