"No access to mental health support, when needed."

My daughter was referred to The Andrew Lang Unit in October 2020, she had started to express suicidal thoughts as a result of the transition from primary school to High School.

It was January 2022 before she was first seen, by this time her self-esteem and confidence had depleted and her social anxiety was significantly impacting on her quality of life.

She had 3 appointments with the ALU so I was assuming that was the start of her support. However all contact from them stopped again. I tried on a few occasions to contact them, no-one got back to me until I then contacted the manager.

In August 2022 they diagnosed my daughter with Autism. They posted me out their report which I did not understand. They told me I would be able to join an online support group for parents of newly diagnosed children with Autism, almost seven months on, I have heard nothing more.

My daughter had a few appointments with a psychologist, October 2022, who refused to believe that my daughter's mental health needed support. They implied that social anxiety is a part of Autism, you just have to live with that.  Despite the fact that my daughter was rarely attending school, she was being bullied at school, was dropping out of her out of school hobbies, was experiencing meltdowns more regularly and would have suicidal thoughts, predominantly due to her social anxiety.

In my opinion if someone's quality of life is being significantly impaired by social anxiety they are entitled to support with that, regardless of the cause of social anxiety.

My daughter had self-harmed and the psychologist seemed to believe that she would not harm herself again, except my daughter has done this again, and more seriously.

I believe this could have been avoided if the ALU had offered her support and coping strategies. The psychologist got me to fill in a questionnaire and the results from that told them, that it is me, I worry too much! The psychologist compared it to the questionnaire they  got my daughter to fill in, despite how my daughter masks her problems, wants to please people and has interception issues.

The ALU believed my daughter could receive mainstream support for her mental health, even though my daughter is Autistic, has Developmental Language Disorder and Dyslexia. My daughter describes now feeling Depressed and feels she will never make anything of herself in life.

My daughter wanted their help and they refused, what message does that give her? Due to so much time missed at school this year, will not be able to sit her exams next year.

Myself and her dad have been off work due to the stress of watching my daughters mental health deteriorate so much over the last three years, the shock of the Autism diagnosis and no support around that.