An autistic teenage girl had to wait years for help with her mental health was failed when she was most vulnerable, an ombudsman has found. 

The teenage girl, from Gateshead, was only 14 when her GP referred her to mental health services. She was suffering "intense emotional meltdowns", which sometimes involved self-harm. 

She was also crying a lot, often unhappy, and struggled to concentrate at school so much that she stopped going.

But it took two years for her to be seen by healthcare professionals at  Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust’s Children and Young People’s (CYP) services, six times over the 18-week waitlist target. 

Now, the girl's mother has said that she could not "put into words how devastating the impact of the delay was on our family.

"At a crucial time in her life, my daughter was abandoned by the professionals who are supposed to care for her.

"She couldn’t do all the normal things that teenagers do, she became increasingly isolated and withdrawn, and her intense emotional meltdowns could last for hours."

She added: "It is heartbreaking because she has such potential – she is highly intelligent, articulate, warm, funny – and so much of that has been wasted because she got lost in the system."

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigated the case and found that the Trust failed to provide suitable care in an adequate timeframe. This caused a delay in her mental health beginning to improve.

The Ombudsman published reports in 2018 and 2024 highlighting issues in mental health services including when transferring people with poor mental health out of inpatient and emergency care, and failures in diagnosis that led to poor treatment.

Rebecca Hilsenrath, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said: “Timely treatment is critical for the safety and wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. The overwhelming majority of professionals in mental health services demonstrate their hard work, commitment and care daily, but they are also working under immense pressure.

“Delays in diagnosis and treatment can have a significant impact on patients, as this story shows. In this case, the girl had to wait far too long to be treated and this deeply affected her health, her life, and her family."

Mental health trust CNTW apologised for the delay in treatment, and said new policies mean children and their families would be seen within four weeks of their referral. 

The girl, now 18, was referred to CYP in December 2020. She was diagnosed with autism in January 2022.

She then had to wait until December of that year to receive medication for anxiety and sleep problems and was only allocated a care coordinator 27 months after the referral.

No interim support was offered by the Trust during the two years between her being referred and receiving medication.

The mother complained to the PHSO who found that earlier intervention could have meant her daughter was able to stay in school, maintain friendships and help her to feel less abandoned.

There were also failings in the way the Trust handled the mother’s complaint which increased the family’s distress as they couldn’t gain answers or updates while they waited for treatment to begin.

The Ombudsman recommended that the Trust apologise to the family and create an action plan to improve services so that future patients don’t have a similar experience. The Trust has complied.

The girl's mother said: "It was incredibly stressful for us as parents to see her going through this and feel like no one was helping us.

"I was ringing the crisis team every week, sometimes more than that. No one would tell us where she was on the waiting list or how long it could take to get the help she so badly needed.

"We just went round in circles. The stress led to me having panic attacks and being prescribed anti-depressants.

She added: "I am in awe of what my daughter has been able to achieve despite what she has been through."

Ramona Duguid, Chief Operating Officer at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are sorry for the delays people are experiencing in accessing the care, support, and treatment they need.

"We fully recognise the significant distress this causes people and their families who are waiting long periods of time to get the help they need.

“We take all complaints seriously and always look at how we can learn from them to improve people’s experience of our services.

"It is important to acknowledge the learning we have also taken from this specific complaint, how this was dealt with and the added distress this caused to the family, again which we are very sorry for.

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“Our Children and Young People’s Service provide both mental health and neurodiverse pathways of support.  We are implementing new ways of working on the mental health pathway and are working towards ensuring that every young person and their family referred receives help and advice within four weeks.

“However, we recognise the significant challenges in demand for the neurodiverse needs pathway in our region as well as nationally.  Referrals for assessments have increased significantly over the last few years.

"Our teams are working hard to do everything they can to support people who are waiting, whilst we work with our partners on a fundamental redesign of this pathway.   This includes having the right professionals at the right time to support people sooner, which is essential in ensuring we build the right capacity to meet the significant demand increases we continue to experience.”