Just who do troubled young people turn to? (From Warrington Guardian)

Just who do troubled young people turn to?

I FEEL I must reply to Delphine Ryan's letter (January 18 edition) regarding her quote about the mental health industry's record in schools to date being nothing short of disastrous.

Well Ms Ryan, I suggest you contact me personally and quantify this ridiculous and ignorant statement. I have worked in the education sector for the past 15 years, in primary and secondary schools, as a schools' counsellor and was the child protection officer in one of them for five years.

Instead of quoting those selective, high-browed academics, who she is so obviously swayed by, I suggest she talks to the wide-ranging mental health practitioners and agencies who work at the cutting edge of responding to children and young people's emotional issues.

Ms Ryan mentions fake intimacy and pretended care. If our services were not available to you and people who need or request them, then I firmly believe that we would have a higher incidence of suicide, self harm, depression, eating disorders and so on.

I can give her hundreds of names of young people and children who have benefited from talking to professionals or 'fakers' like me, when they had no one to talk to, not to mention parents concerned about their children. Children and young people have the right to discuss their worries and problems with whoever they choose.

I suggest Ms Ryan is dabbling in a specialised area of which she is totally ignorant and it is a dangerous view to publicise, considering her position as a member of the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights Cheshire.

I ask you Ms Ryan, what then are you suggesting about the human rights of a child who is being abused?

Who do they confide in? The young person who is severely depressed and through intervention from one of us 'fakers' could see that she was suffering with obsessive compulsive disorder at 12 years old?

Yes Ms Ryan, believe me, children and young people do suffer with mental health problems just as much as adults do. Only as adults we can take ourselves to the GP. I doubt a young person of 12 would take that step without advocacy from people such as me.

So before you embarrass yourself further and denigrate the very valuable services of mental health practitioners, I suggest you contact me, Relate, 42nd Street, Young Minds, and access our information and experiences. Then you may be able to make a better-informed decision.

BERNIE CARNIE

RGN Adv Dip Counselling

Trauma Care Consultant