January 2024 by Leanne Coombe
My daughter has been through CAMHS multiple times after years of self harming, depression, anxiety, etc. After an extremely long wait, she had an assessment with Young Somerset. Following this she was given her first face to face therapy session. She wanted me to go with her as she was so nervous and it took everything she had to attend. After sitting in the waiting area she was informed that Fiona Lewis, her therapist would not be there.The following week she received a text the evening before what should have been her second session to say it was cancelled and she was to attend the following week.Sitting in the waiting area for her THIRD (But actuallt first as 2 were cancelled) session and after 5 minutes, no one knew what was happening and the therapist AGAIN did not turn up. My daughter had lost faith in getting help before going to this "third" session and had been self harming as she couldn't cope any more.There was a minimal apology from Young Somerset who didn't appreciate how massively this was affecting her mental health. I had to ask them to try a phone call because my child was at the end of her rope.She missed the call and received a voicemail. The entire voicemail was meant for an entirely different person with a different name, etc, so there was a huge data breach.As a result she has now given up college, feels there is no help and this whole situation has destroyed any shred of hope she had.After all of this, she and I BOTH received an email apology AGAIN addressing a completely different person. I would suggest people avoid Young Somerset completely. There needs to be a reliable and trusted service for suicidal and depressed young people before they take their own lives and become a statistic. If you read this far, I appreciate your time.This comes from the heart of a desperate mother doing everything possible to keep their child alive.Young Somerset will never admit their repeated mistakes and situations like these literally cost lives.Thank you for reading, from one desperate mother that is expecting the worst due to the constant failures in the system.(I will add that during this data breach, we learned everything about another young person that should be totally confidential and that family know all of our private information.
