I'm Broken Inside: Sara's Story Panorama


I'm Broken Inside: Sara's Story

Similar Content

Browse content similar to I'm Broken Inside: Sara's Story. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

"I want to tell you the truth about how bad things have got."

0:00:020:00:05

A cry for help from a 17-year-old

0:00:050:00:07

trapped within Britain's broken mental health service.

0:00:070:00:11

"I came into hospital with one or two suicide plans,

0:00:110:00:15

"but now I have at least five."

0:00:150:00:17

Parents separated from their children by hundreds of miles.

0:00:180:00:22

We shouldn't have to travel this far. There should be places nearby.

0:00:220:00:26

A system so dysfunctional it can't even keep track of deaths.

0:00:280:00:33

What is so shocking is that neither we

0:00:330:00:36

nor the Department of Health

0:00:360:00:39

know how many children are dying in psychiatric care.

0:00:390:00:44

Do you know how many children have died

0:00:440:00:46

in mental health units since 2010?

0:00:460:00:49

I'm advised that the number is very small.

0:00:490:00:51

-Well, do you know how many?

-I don't know the number accurately.

0:00:510:00:55

How many more deaths do they need

0:00:550:00:58

before they're going to do something?

0:00:580:01:01

A bereaved mother haunted by the words of her daughter.

0:01:020:01:06

"I'm not all right.

0:01:060:01:08

"I'm broken inside."

0:01:080:01:10

Sara Green was a very bright child,

0:01:200:01:23

excited about her future.

0:01:230:01:25

All she ever wanted to do was go into a medical career, be a doctor.

0:01:270:01:31

-Just so caring, so thoughtful.

-Mm.

0:01:310:01:34

You know, so much compassion for everybody else.

0:01:340:01:37

Sara, more than anything, loved to write.

0:01:390:01:42

"I'm hoping that I'll find out where I'm going soon,

0:01:430:01:46

"so I can start looking at applying to college."

0:01:460:01:49

She would write,

0:01:490:01:51

and she would sometimes show us certain pages of her diary

0:01:510:01:54

to let us know how she was feeling,

0:01:540:01:56

if she didn't feel she could express that particular thing.

0:01:560:01:59

Sara's family have allowed us to use extracts from this diary.

0:02:010:02:05

A teenager writing of a broken mental health service

0:02:050:02:09

and her supposed place of safety,

0:02:090:02:11

the hospital where she was to die.

0:02:110:02:14

"I cried so much today,

0:02:140:02:15

"and I know tomorrow will be worse."

0:02:150:02:18

For this film, her sister Stacey chose to read Sara's words.

0:02:200:02:23

No-one could ever tell on the phone who was who.

0:02:250:02:28

They'd have to say, "Is that Sara or is that Stacey?"

0:02:280:02:31

Aged 11, Sara's difficulties began.

0:02:370:02:40

She started developing mental health problems.

0:02:400:02:43

By the time she was 14, Sara had an eating disorder

0:02:440:02:47

and was locked into obsessive behaviour.

0:02:470:02:50

One evening, she confided in Stacey.

0:02:510:02:55

We were in our bedroom, and she told me that she self-harms.

0:02:550:03:00

And I didn't...

0:03:010:03:02

It was late at night, and I didn't...

0:03:020:03:06

I tried not to react, really. I just listened.

0:03:060:03:09

And I did say to her,

0:03:110:03:12

"Well, obviously, I'm going to have to tell Mum."

0:03:120:03:17

But I told her that I was glad she told me.

0:03:170:03:19

Sara, like many teenagers, used self harm to show her distress.

0:03:210:03:25

It led to her first brush with disaster.

0:03:270:03:30

She took an overdose of antidepressants.

0:03:320:03:35

"I'm not accepted at school.

0:03:370:03:39

"There are only so many insults a person can take.

0:03:390:03:42

"I'm hated for who I am,

0:03:420:03:44

"but the truth is, I hate myself.

0:03:440:03:46

"I can't believe I let them get to me like this."

0:03:460:03:50

The family caught her just in time.

0:03:510:03:54

They found a note. She felt bullied.

0:03:540:03:57

"I want to tell you the truth about how bad things have got.

0:03:570:04:01

"I'm not all right.

0:04:010:04:03

"I'm broken inside."

0:04:030:04:05

It's estimated nearly half of all children have been bullied.

0:04:130:04:16

These days, after school ends, there's no respite.

0:04:180:04:21

What we've seen is an explosion, really, around bullying.

0:04:220:04:27

Cyber-bullying means that young people are exposed to bullying

0:04:270:04:31

24 hours a day.

0:04:310:04:34

They don't escape it at all.

0:04:340:04:36

You don't come home from school and leave those people behind.

0:04:360:04:39

They are still there, on your phone.

0:04:390:04:41

It's having an enormous impact on young people's mental health.

0:04:410:04:45

In the summer of the 2013,

0:04:470:04:49

the family were living in Scunthorpe,

0:04:490:04:51

and Sara was under the care of CAMHS.

0:04:510:04:54

CAMHS is the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service,

0:04:560:05:00

and across England, it's in crisis.

0:05:000:05:02

The Scunthorpe CAMHS office

0:05:040:05:06

wasn't able to give Sara the home support she needed.

0:05:060:05:10

The advice was, take her home,

0:05:100:05:13

lock the windows, lock the doors,

0:05:130:05:16

and if she absconds, ring the police.

0:05:160:05:18

Sara took another overdose.

0:05:200:05:22

Now CAMHS decided she needed hospital treatment.

0:05:220:05:26

But in the whole of Humber and Yorkshire,

0:05:260:05:29

there were only 30 child psychiatric beds.

0:05:290:05:32

None were available.

0:05:320:05:34

So for three nights, Sara was shunted between adult NHS units.

0:05:340:05:39

You received a phone call, didn't you,

0:05:410:05:43

giving you 20 minutes' notice that

0:05:430:05:45

they were picking Sara up in a taxi from Scunthorpe

0:05:450:05:49

and then going to the Priory, Cheadle Royal.

0:05:490:05:53

-That's the other side of the country.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

0:05:530:05:56

Nearly half of all adolescent mental health patients

0:05:580:06:01

are sent by the NHS to private hospitals,

0:06:010:06:04

at an average cost of £800 a night.

0:06:040:06:07

The Priory group, the largest provider,

0:06:090:06:11

renowned for celebrity rehab,

0:06:110:06:13

gets 85% of its funding from the public sector.

0:06:130:06:17

On July 17th 2013,

0:06:180:06:21

Sara Green was admitted to the Priory in Cheadle, Manchester.

0:06:210:06:25

Now 100 miles from home and family, she turned to her diary.

0:06:260:06:30

"I want to go home.

0:06:300:06:33

"I just hope that Mum and Stace will be able to visit soon,

0:06:330:06:36

"because it's making me feel worse not being able to see them."

0:06:360:06:39

Faced with the expense of a 200-mile round trip across England,

0:06:410:06:45

her family had to scrimp to see her once a fortnight.

0:06:450:06:48

There was one week we lived on tuna sandwiches,

0:06:480:06:51

and that is just how it was.

0:06:510:06:53

That ordeal is bleakly familiar to Tara Palin.

0:06:560:06:59

We met Tara this winter,

0:07:020:07:04

crossing the country from Lancashire to Newcastle,

0:07:040:07:07

a 300-mile round trip,

0:07:070:07:09

to see her 15-year-old daughter, Rachel.

0:07:090:07:12

We've tried all kinds of ways. Travelling by coach, train.

0:07:130:07:17

Just... There's no real easy way.

0:07:170:07:20

It's horrible.

0:07:200:07:21

Rachel was a happy child.

0:07:240:07:26

-Hip-hip...

-Hurray!

0:07:260:07:28

-Hip-hip...

-Hurray!

0:07:280:07:30

But like one in ten of all youngsters,

0:07:310:07:33

she began having mental health problems.

0:07:330:07:36

Tara, from Chorley, is one of hundreds of parents

0:07:410:07:44

who must travel long distances to see their children.

0:07:440:07:47

Where's she been so far, then?

0:07:470:07:49

She's been to Warrington, which was not too bad.

0:07:490:07:53

It felt like it was miles away,

0:07:530:07:55

but it's nothing compared to now.

0:07:550:07:58

And then, after that, she got moved to Stafford,

0:07:580:08:00

about two-and-a-half hours away.

0:08:000:08:03

And then she got moved to Middlesbrough.

0:08:030:08:05

So three, three-and-a-half hours.

0:08:050:08:07

-And now, well, this journey...

-It's about five, isn't it?

0:08:070:08:10

Yeah, takes about five hours, all in all.

0:08:100:08:12

So it's getting further and further away.

0:08:120:08:14

Yeah, further and further away.

0:08:140:08:16

The distance leaves Tara's daughter Rachel,

0:08:170:08:20

like Sara and many others before her,

0:08:200:08:23

without the family support crucial to recovery.

0:08:230:08:27

It's essential to try and keep young people connected

0:08:270:08:30

to their communities, their families, their friends.

0:08:300:08:33

That actually helps their recovery.

0:08:330:08:35

CAMHS is always a Cinderella service.

0:08:350:08:38

It only, even now, will be receiving 0.7%

0:08:380:08:43

-of the total NHS budget.

-0.7%?

-Indeed,

0:08:430:08:47

of the total NHS budget.

0:08:470:08:49

So we're really concerned

0:08:490:08:50

that we're facing a lost generation of young people here.

0:08:500:08:54

This journey isn't smooth.

0:08:560:08:58

An hour's delay at Manchester - Tara is used to it.

0:09:010:09:05

Tara accepts Rachel needs hospital treatment,

0:09:080:09:12

but fears she's becoming institutionalised.

0:09:120:09:14

She's getting worse.

0:09:160:09:17

I see her with marks that she's never had before.

0:09:170:09:20

Learned behaviour. That's never happened.

0:09:200:09:22

Marks round her neck

0:09:220:09:24

where she's tried to make ligatures. It's learned behaviour.

0:09:240:09:27

Learned from being in these places,

0:09:270:09:29

learned off other children, that they're doing it.

0:09:290:09:31

# Happy birthday, dear Sara

0:09:370:09:39

# Happy birthday to you! #

0:09:390:09:41

Six weeks after admission to the Priory,

0:09:410:09:44

close to the time when she should have been discharged,

0:09:440:09:46

Sara Green was allowed home for her 17th birthday,

0:09:460:09:50

her hair dyed red for the party.

0:09:500:09:53

Make a wish.

0:09:530:09:54

Make a wish.

0:09:540:09:56

But then it was back to the Priory.

0:09:590:10:01

Sara had been told she'd be there

0:10:030:10:04

no more than eight weeks for initial assessment.

0:10:040:10:08

"I've been in hospital for weeks now,

0:10:080:10:10

"but I don't think that people fully understand my problems."

0:10:100:10:14

But there was no move,

0:10:150:10:17

and it fed her anxiety.

0:10:170:10:19

"I cried so much today,

0:10:190:10:21

"and I know tomorrow will be worse."

0:10:210:10:24

Soon after, Sara says there was a huge letdown.

0:10:240:10:28

She'd been looking forward to a break at home.

0:10:280:10:32

"What a crap few days.

0:10:320:10:34

"Friday, I was all ready to go home,

0:10:340:10:36

"then I got told I wasn't going because there weren't any staff.

0:10:360:10:40

"I absolutely hate it here."

0:10:400:10:42

You don't promise a child,

0:10:430:10:45

you don't let them get packed up ready to go home,

0:10:450:10:48

and then just before you're ready to leave, say,

0:10:480:10:50

"No, you're not going home."

0:10:500:10:52

By October 2013, after two-and-a-half months in the Priory,

0:10:540:10:58

all sides agreed Sara should be closer to home.

0:10:580:11:01

But nothing happened.

0:11:030:11:05

Sara's fixations became much worse.

0:11:050:11:08

"If anything, I have worse thoughts of suicide now

0:11:100:11:13

"than I did when I first came in.

0:11:130:11:15

"These are getting increasingly bad at the moment."

0:11:150:11:18

Sara was plagued by notions of self-destruction.

0:11:200:11:24

She started having more incidents.

0:11:240:11:27

-Self-harming?

-Yeah.

0:11:270:11:29

And more severe incidents as well.

0:11:290:11:32

At case meetings, the family would be told of fruitless attempts

0:11:340:11:38

by CAMHS and NHS England

0:11:380:11:40

to get Sara a bed closer to home.

0:11:400:11:43

Each time it was different excuses.

0:11:430:11:46

They'd say a bed was becoming available,

0:11:460:11:48

we're just waiting for another child to be discharged, things like that.

0:11:480:11:52

And then there'd be some excuse

0:11:520:11:54

why it wasn't happening.

0:11:540:11:56

She felt she was just being lied to all the time.

0:11:560:11:59

The family say there was palpable tension between the Priory

0:12:020:12:06

and the child mental health service CAMHS,

0:12:060:12:09

as they discussed what should happen next.

0:12:090:12:11

In these meetings, Sara was pretty much made to sit there

0:12:130:12:16

and listen to CAMHS and the Priory debating between themselves

0:12:160:12:20

who's going to provide funding.

0:12:200:12:22

-In front of the child, the patient?

-In front of Sara.

0:12:220:12:25

Christmas is tough for the 1,000 or so children who are inpatients.

0:12:270:12:32

Rachel Palin has now spent her second Christmas detained,

0:12:320:12:35

or sectioned, under the Mental Health Act.

0:12:350:12:39

150 miles away, at home,

0:12:390:12:41

her mother Tara safety-proofs the presents.

0:12:410:12:45

I bought her part of a tracksuit,

0:12:450:12:47

and when I wrap it up, I'll have to pull this out.

0:12:470:12:50

The drawstring will have to come out,

0:12:500:12:52

because she will just tie it round her neck,

0:12:520:12:54

and that'll be quite hard to get off her.

0:12:540:12:57

Tara goes to extraordinary lengths to protect Rachel from herself.

0:12:570:13:00

I'm scared that I'm going to, potentially, be responsible

0:13:030:13:06

for giving her something to hurt herself with and harm herself with.

0:13:060:13:10

These same worries troubled Sara's mum Jane

0:13:130:13:16

when Sara was in the Priory.

0:13:160:13:18

In the run-up to Christmas 2013,

0:13:200:13:22

four-and-a-half months into her stay,

0:13:220:13:24

the Priory lent Sara a craft book for making bracelets.

0:13:240:13:28

It was bound with wire.

0:13:280:13:31

See, the thing with Sara,

0:13:310:13:33

if she had an idea in her mind of something to harm herself,

0:13:330:13:37

she would feel she'd have to act on it.

0:13:370:13:40

She couldn't just sort of erase it from her mind.

0:13:410:13:45

She felt that in order to do that,

0:13:450:13:47

she would have to act out whatever it was she was thinking.

0:13:470:13:52

Sara's mother and sister say a member of the Priory staff

0:13:540:13:58

made an ill-judged comment about the wire binding.

0:13:580:14:01

A nurse had come in the room and said to Sara,

0:14:010:14:04

"You'll be all right with this, Sara?

0:14:040:14:07

"You won't do owt with this, would you?"

0:14:070:14:09

-You won't do anything with this?

-Mm.

-Meaning what?

0:14:090:14:12

Use it for anything.

0:14:120:14:14

And after the nurse had left the room,

0:14:140:14:17

Sara said, "Well, you know, I hadn't thought of that before...

0:14:170:14:21

-BOTH:

-"..but I have now."

0:14:210:14:24

The Priory says it does not believe this conversation happened.

0:14:250:14:29

Sara was allowed home leave for Christmas,

0:14:300:14:33

but on Christmas Day she was anxious at the impending departure

0:14:330:14:38

of her local CAMHS caseworker.

0:14:380:14:40

"From the moment I got home,

0:14:420:14:44

"all I have thought about is self-harming.

0:14:440:14:47

"To top it off, it looks like I'll be getting another worker.

0:14:470:14:50

"She says she will still be seeing me, but I'm annoyed.

0:14:500:14:53

"The whole point of her was to have one consistent worker

0:14:530:14:56

"because I have been through so many."

0:14:560:14:59

January 2014 was a dreadful month.

0:15:010:15:04

Back in the Priory, Sara tried self-strangulation, ligatures,

0:15:060:15:10

eight separate times.

0:15:100:15:12

She told her mother she was frightened staff might not

0:15:120:15:16

find her in time and that her self-harming could end in tragedy.

0:15:160:15:20

Jane wrote a two-page letter to the Priory,

0:15:230:15:26

listing a number of serious complaints.

0:15:260:15:28

"There have been several incidents involving ligatures..."

0:15:280:15:31

"Becoming increasingly distressed and...

0:15:310:15:33

"I feel my daughter's safety and wellbeing

0:15:330:15:36

"is consistently seriously compromised."

0:15:360:15:39

She didn't receive a reply for three months

0:15:390:15:42

and by then, it was too late.

0:15:420:15:44

Sara's departing CAMHS caseworker

0:15:470:15:49

also put her concerns in an e-mail to her bosses.

0:15:490:15:52

"We feel that Sara is no longer being appropriately risk managed."

0:15:540:15:59

Some days later, Jane received a late-night phone call

0:16:030:16:06

from the Priory saying they'd forcibly cut Sara's hair

0:16:060:16:10

because she was threatening to ligature with it.

0:16:100:16:14

Sara was devastated.

0:16:140:16:17

"There's no need to hack it off whilst I'm in restraint.

0:16:170:16:20

"And my hair wasn't even around my neck at that point.

0:16:200:16:23

"How is that any different to assault?"

0:16:230:16:25

And Sara actually told us they'd pinned her up against the wall

0:16:250:16:29

and hacked it off with ligature cutters.

0:16:290:16:32

The member of staff basically said,

0:16:320:16:34

"We cannot let her control like that, she has to learn."

0:16:340:16:38

The Priory told Panorama

0:16:400:16:42

staff had no option but to cut her hair to ensure her safety,

0:16:420:16:47

following repeated attempts to ligature with it.

0:16:470:16:50

Sara, unwell and struggling, was still able to make

0:16:530:16:56

an acute assessment of how the system was failing her.

0:16:560:17:00

She, better than anyone, understood.

0:17:000:17:04

"My community team are clueless,

0:17:040:17:06

"and the staff here have different opinions on what to do with me.

0:17:060:17:10

"I'm just kind of stuck in the middle

0:17:100:17:12

"between my CAMHS team that wants me in this unit,

0:17:120:17:15

"but failing to offer enough support in the community.

0:17:150:17:18

"It's making me question if anyone actually knows what

0:17:180:17:21

"they are talking about."

0:17:210:17:23

On the last day of January, Sara took the wire binding

0:17:260:17:30

from the Priory's craft book and tried to strangle herself.

0:17:300:17:34

She was saved but it was close. She needed oxygen.

0:17:340:17:37

A few weeks later she wrote...

0:17:390:17:42

"I don't like not knowing where I am going next

0:17:420:17:45

"and not knowing anything about it.

0:17:450:17:47

"Not knowing when and where makes me feel really uncertain

0:17:470:17:50

"about everything, and out of control, which I absolutely hate."

0:17:500:17:54

Then Sara is given hope.

0:17:570:18:00

A caseworker, commissioned by NHS England,

0:18:000:18:03

shows her brochures of therapeutic units.

0:18:030:18:06

They talk of sending her to a new one near Leeds,

0:18:060:18:10

still 50 miles from home but close enough for regular family visits.

0:18:100:18:15

"I'm glad that things have moved in terms of finding me a placement.

0:18:150:18:19

"I'm hoping that I'll find out where I'm going soon

0:18:190:18:22

"so I can start looking at applying to college."

0:18:220:18:25

What Sara didn't know is the new unit wouldn't even be open

0:18:330:18:36

for another six months.

0:18:360:18:39

NHS England didn't know this either.

0:18:390:18:41

No-one made the basic check, a phone call, to find out.

0:18:410:18:46

There was no place to go to...

0:18:460:18:48

so why tell us there was? Why build Sara's hopes up?

0:18:480:18:53

Sara's last home visit was in March 2014.

0:18:550:18:59

She was depressed at the prospect of returning to the Priory

0:18:590:19:03

but her mum says they had no option.

0:19:030:19:06

She didn't want to go back.

0:19:070:19:09

I didn't want her to go back, I didn't...

0:19:090:19:12

I didn't want her to go back, but I knew what would happen if...

0:19:120:19:15

-If she didn't.

-They would section her.

0:19:150:19:17

And they'd made that quite clear over the period of time

0:19:170:19:21

she was in there.

0:19:210:19:23

On March 18th 2014,

0:19:250:19:27

the day after she went back to the Priory,

0:19:270:19:30

Sara Green made a second wire ligature.

0:19:300:19:33

This time she wouldn't be saved.

0:19:350:19:37

At half past ten she was pronounced dead.

0:19:410:19:45

She had used a wire...

0:19:450:19:46

..from a spiral book...

0:19:490:19:51

..and taken her own life.

0:19:530:19:55

The coroner at Sara's inquest was heavily critical of the Priory.

0:20:060:20:10

He concluded she hadn't intended to die, it wasn't suicide,

0:20:100:20:14

she was self-harming,

0:20:140:20:15

her anxiety having worsened because of her unacceptably

0:20:150:20:19

prolonged stay here in the Priory,

0:20:190:20:22

a hospital 100 miles from her home.

0:20:220:20:25

The coroner said the ward manager's evidence

0:20:290:20:32

that Sara's first wire binding ligature wasn't "a serious incident"

0:20:320:20:36

was a staggering admission.

0:20:360:20:39

The Priory's record-keeping was

0:20:400:20:42

"deplorable, so inadequate as to risk future deaths.

0:20:420:20:46

"Sara would have been safer at home."

0:20:460:20:49

The Priory told Panorama the safety of patients was its first concern.

0:20:510:20:55

Sara Green's death should never have happened.

0:21:160:21:18

The fact that it did is absolutely appalling.

0:21:180:21:21

For our society, in this day and age,

0:21:210:21:24

for a young person to be in inpatient care,

0:21:240:21:28

where she should be getting the best of care, to help her recover,

0:21:280:21:33

to take her own life is just awful.

0:21:330:21:36

And what this indicates is a whole system in collapse.

0:21:360:21:40

The verdict at Sara's inquest was that both CAMHS and NHS England

0:21:410:21:45

had given confusing and contradictory evidence

0:21:450:21:49

and had no clear plan to get Sara out of the Priory.

0:21:490:21:53

The coroner blamed the entire system for Sara's death.

0:21:540:21:57

CAMHS in Scunthorpe is run by an NHS Trust.

0:21:590:22:03

In Sara's case, she was supposed to be in this hospital

0:22:030:22:06

for six to eight weeks. She was there for nine months.

0:22:060:22:08

There was no way for her to get out because you had no facilities here.

0:22:080:22:12

Absolutely. And that is absolutely to be regretted.

0:22:120:22:16

There was nowhere appropriate for her to go that would have met

0:22:160:22:18

her needs at the time. I fully accept that.

0:22:180:22:21

Because she couldn't just be transferred

0:22:210:22:23

to a normal CAMHS service locally - it would require a specialist level

0:22:230:22:26

of input that was not available locally -

0:22:260:22:29

hence other units were being sought out.

0:22:290:22:31

-And none found.

-Not at that point.

0:22:310:22:34

Since Sara Green's death,

0:22:360:22:38

a legal campaigning group has been working with her family.

0:22:380:22:42

What has been really shocking is how difficult it is to find out

0:22:420:22:47

the true picture of the number of children who are dying

0:22:470:22:49

in psychiatric care. We asked a parliamentary question

0:22:490:22:53

to the previous Minister, Norman Lamb,

0:22:530:22:56

who told us that there had been no deaths between 2010

0:22:560:23:00

and between 2014. And yet we knew from our casework

0:23:000:23:03

that of course there had been deaths.

0:23:030:23:06

We then were forced to conduct Freedom of Information requests,

0:23:060:23:10

which have subsequently found out that there have been nine deaths.

0:23:100:23:14

But, of course, Freedom of Information does not apply

0:23:140:23:17

-to private providers.

-So you think there could be even more deaths?

0:23:170:23:20

My fear is that there could be more deaths.

0:23:200:23:22

But what is so shocking is that neither we

0:23:220:23:26

nor the Department of Health know how many children are dying

0:23:260:23:30

in psychiatric care.

0:23:300:23:32

Do you know how many children have died in mental health units

0:23:320:23:36

since 2010?

0:23:360:23:38

-I'm advised that the number is very small.

-Do you know how many?

0:23:380:23:41

I don't know the number accurately beyond...

0:23:410:23:44

Your predecessor said none had died.

0:23:440:23:47

-Right.

-We've been told by the charity Inquest

0:23:470:23:49

they've established at least nine have died.

0:23:490:23:52

Well, my understanding is, actually, it was fewer than that.

0:23:520:23:57

Should you not, as the minister responsible, know how many?

0:23:570:24:00

I was advised it was less than that number.

0:24:000:24:03

The minister later said they'd records of four deaths since 2010,

0:24:030:24:08

and now they'd explore Inquest's figure of nine.

0:24:080:24:11

He stated...

0:24:110:24:12

Rachel's mum Tara is determined the system must change.

0:24:300:24:34

She started an online petition for more localised care

0:24:340:24:39

and has collected over 100,000 signatures.

0:24:390:24:41

It's just amazing, we were overwhelmed by it.

0:24:430:24:46

And that means you have the possibility

0:24:460:24:48

of a parliamentary debate.

0:24:480:24:49

Yeah, I think you need over 100,000 to be considered for a debate

0:24:490:24:53

in Parliament, yeah.

0:24:530:24:55

These poor children are being kept so far away from their families,

0:24:550:24:58

and it doesn't help recovery, it's not helpful at all.

0:24:580:25:02

It's not good for them, it's not good for the family.

0:25:020:25:05

In February, a long-awaited NHS task force reported that

0:25:080:25:12

England's mental health services have been chronically underfunded.

0:25:120:25:17

The minister says he wants that to change.

0:25:170:25:21

We're trying to increase the amount both of community provision

0:25:210:25:24

and specialised care. We now have 1,400 acute beds available

0:25:240:25:28

for children and young people, that's the most we've ever had.

0:25:280:25:31

We've added 50 since I became the minister.

0:25:310:25:34

At the same time, we have an investment of £1.4 billion

0:25:340:25:38

into children's and young people's services.

0:25:380:25:40

Sara Green's death carries many lessons.

0:25:430:25:46

I want you to give this person a compliment, OK? When I say...

0:25:460:25:49

If we're falling short in caring for the mentally ill,

0:25:490:25:52

what's to be done?

0:25:520:25:54

Off you go. Give each other a compliment.

0:25:540:25:57

Schools are now on the front line, handling mental health problems.

0:25:570:26:01

Three-quarters of mental health trusts in England cut or froze

0:26:010:26:05

their CAMHS teenage mental health spending last year.

0:26:050:26:09

The responsibility's been put onto schools to tackle problems

0:26:090:26:13

before they take hold.

0:26:130:26:15

Teachers are very well placed to actually spot

0:26:150:26:18

when children are in distress or where there is change

0:26:180:26:22

which might indicate a mental health problem.

0:26:220:26:24

So what we have done is start a new type of programme called

0:26:240:26:29

Academic Resilience.

0:26:290:26:30

And this is about helping schools help the mental health

0:26:300:26:34

of their pupils, and it's a completely brand-new approach.

0:26:340:26:38

So when Lara logged on and she saw those comments,

0:26:380:26:41

how would that have made her feel?

0:26:410:26:43

The school piloting the programme was Hove Park Secondary in Sussex.

0:26:430:26:47

She started to regret it, yep, she started to regret it.

0:26:470:26:50

And why do you think...?

0:26:500:26:51

They're talking about bullying,

0:26:510:26:53

a torment for Sara Green, Rachael Palin and millions of others.

0:26:530:26:58

Yeah, so it could lead to depression and self-harm.

0:26:580:27:00

In what ways do you think it might...?

0:27:000:27:03

Rates of teenage depression have doubled since the 1980s.

0:27:030:27:07

On average, three in every classroom

0:27:070:27:10

will have some kind of mental health problem.

0:27:100:27:13

At Hove Park it means around 160 pupils will need help.

0:27:130:27:17

Self-harming, have you had any experience of that

0:27:180:27:21

or do you know any friends who self-harm?

0:27:210:27:24

The school employs three full-time non-teaching staff,

0:27:240:27:28

the care team, for counselling.

0:27:280:27:31

It's really sad to say but I think it's become quite normal now.

0:27:310:27:35

The majority of people I know personally self-harm.

0:27:350:27:39

-Make a wish.

-I made a wish.

0:27:470:27:50

Sara Green died because she was let down

0:27:510:27:54

by a broken mental health service.

0:27:540:27:57

The family, in their grief, know, like Sara knew,

0:27:570:28:01

she would have been far safer at home.

0:28:010:28:04

Sara was frightened, you could see it in her...

0:28:080:28:11

Because she knew what was going on.

0:28:110:28:14

And that's what makes it really, really hard as well.

0:28:140:28:17

Because she knew...

0:28:170:28:19

what was happening and she couldn't do anything about it and...

0:28:190:28:23

neither could anybody else.

0:28:230:28:25

"Fall the floor

0:28:280:28:30

"Close the door

0:28:300:28:32

"I don't want to be me

0:28:320:28:33

"I want to be free

0:28:330:28:35

"I need some relief from all this grief

0:28:350:28:38

"I know I smile

0:28:380:28:40

"But I haven't felt happy for a while."

0:28:400:28:43

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS