Global’s Make Some Noise 2022: Meet Parenting Mental Health, the charity that aims to end generational mental illness
7 October 2022, 13:18 | Updated: 7 October 2022, 13:28
James O'Brien spoke to Parenting Mental Health founder Suzanne Alderson, who said parents find it hard to get help with supporting their children as they 'feel that it's their fault'.
James O'Brien spoke to Parenting Mental Health founder Suzanne Alderson, who said parents find it hard to get help with supporting their children as they 'feel that it's their fault'.
Today is Global’s Make Some Noise Day where donations to LBC’s charity, Make some Noise, go to several charities across the UK.
James O'Brien spoke to Parenting Mental Health founder Suzanne Alderson, who said parents find it hard to get help as they 'feel that it’s some way their fault'.
Ms Alderson said: “We don’t talk about it because we feel such shame”.
Suzanne Alderson’s 14-year-old daughter became suicidal in 2015.
All of the support was focused on her daughter during this time but she knew as a parent she had the important role of guiding her daughter through this experience.
After there was a shortage of support, training or connection she needed, she decided to ensure that no other parent felt as alone or isolated as she did.
Suzanne told James about how "fortunate" her daughter was to receive help "quite quickly" from suicide-specific assessment and treatment clinic CAMS, when her daughter became depressed in 2015, I but she unfortunately she had to disclose that she was going to end her life in order to receive support.
James responded: “That’s one of the things with Cams isn't it, that unless there is that imminent threat you don't get escalated.”
She replied: “Absolutely and we also see that a lot of young people and their families are turned away from services because even if they are suicidal there just isn't the capacity."
She later added: “We think there are amazing staff in CAMS doing wonderful work but the system is over-subscribed and the threshold of care is rising all the time to meet the enormous demand.
“So, we just think actually parents are part of the key to supporting this, if the funding isn't there and systemically we’re looking at this it’s a relational problem it’s not a transaction like a broken leg so we need to look at it really differently and that’s why parenting mental health supports parents to support their children.”
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