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Patients at Campbelltown's Birunji Youth Mental Health Unit are not being given the tools they need to cope with their conditions. That's the view of Macarthur dad John Moore, whose daughter has been in and out of the facility for the past six months. Mr Moore is frustrated that patients at the 20-bed facility have been without access to a full-time psychologist for at least that long. "She sees a clinical psychologist outside of Birunji one-on-one for one hour a week and she has group therapy for two hours a week," he said. "But with her conditions it's not enough." The teen suffers from borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and severe anxiety. Mr Moore said he couldn't understand why there was no full-time clinical psychologist at Birunji to assist the young people who were seeking help for their conditions. He said his daughter wanted to get better, but her conditions didn't always allow her to. "It really depends on what her brain is doing at any one time," Mr Moore said. "Sometimes she wants to get help and other times she just wants to give up. "I'm not a clinician, but I believe access to a full-time clinical psychologist would help her develop the tools she needs to improve." Mr Moore said watching his daughter struggle with her conditions had also been hard on the family. "The collateral damage of what happens to the families of those young people in care is not taken into account," he said. "It's a problem across the mental health sector." A South Western Sydney Local Health District spokeswoman would not tell the Advertiser how long the facility had been without a clinical psychologist. However, she said the position would be shared by two professionals in future. "Two clinical psychologists have been appointed to fill the clinical psychologist role at the Birunji unit, which delivers specialised care to children and young people aged between 12-25 years," she said. "Mental health services will be significantly expanded as part of the $632 million stage two redevelopment of Campbelltown Hospital." The spokeswoman confirmed the hospital had received two complaints about the lack of psychologist access at Birunji. Campbelltown MP Greg Warren shared Mr Moore's frustrations. "The patients in Birunji are among the most fragile and vulnerable people in our community, yet they don't even have access to basic services like a full-time clinical psychologist," he said. "It should not take more than six months to recruit and appoint a full-time clinical psychologist."

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