Judge warns of ‘blood on our hands’ if help for suicidal girl is not found The UK authorities will have “blood on their hands” if they fail to find urgent hospital treatment for a teenage […]

The UK authorities will have “blood on their hands” if they fail to find urgent hospital treatment for a teenage girl who is a high suicide risk, the country’s most senior family court judge has warned.

In a blistering attack on the state of the UK’s mental health services, Sir James Munby said in a High Court ruling it was “utterly shaming” that suitable provision was so difficult to secure in a developed country, such as Britain.

Sir James, who is president of the family division of the High Court, said he felt “shame and embarrassment” that he could not do more to help a 17-year-old girl due to be released from a Young Offenders Institute.

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Shocking existence

His ruling refers to a girl, known only as X for legal reasons, who requires 24 hour supervision due to concerns over self-harm and repeated “serious” attempts to take her own life. The conditions in which she is existing, he writes, are “shocking”.

The girl is due to be released from her Young Offenders’ unit, known only as ZX, in 11 days time, but neither the NHS nor the local authority has been able to find a bed in a secure mental health institute.

From the ruling Dr Oppenheim’s description of X’s life at ZX is dramatic:

“She is effectively nursed in her bedroom, but this bedroom has had to be stripped in order to make it secure, to the point where [X] has no personal items in the bedroom, no carpet, no mirror, her bed is a mattress on the floor and she has to be dressed in anti-ligature clothing. Even going to the bathroom or having a shower has to be closely supervised. There is a potential for concerns to arise about [X]’s consumption of food and drink, as the periods during the day when she is restrained become increasingly extensive.

… she is now isolated from all her peers and no longer attends education, even on a minimal basis.”

In June, the judge demanded a full care plan but put in place for the girl, but a later assessment determined that she did not meet the required threshold for a medium secure unit as she posed a risk only to herself.

Sir James stated the teenager needed to be placed in a low secure unit for between 18 to 24 months, but only six such units in the country exist.

Disgraceful state of services

“If this is the best we can do for X, and others in similar crisis, what right do we, what right do the system, our society and indeed the state itself, have to call ourselves civilised? The honest answer to this question should make us all feel ashamed,” Munby writes.

He described the case as a “disgraceful” indictment of the country’s mental health provision.

“If, when in eleven days’ time she is released from ZX, we, the system, society, the State, are unable to provide X with the supportive and safe placement she so desperately needs, and if, in consequence, she is enabled to make another attempt on her life, then I can only say, with bleak emphasis: we will have blood on our hands,” he concludes.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, former health minister and mental health champion, described the ruling as a “damning condemnation”, which he said was a “reflection of a failure of the system to provide support of families across the country”.

“We are failing families across our country in a wholly unacceptable way,” he told BBC radio.

A spokesperson for NHS England said: “We have heard the comments from the judge and completely agree that a solution must be found. Together with other agencies involved, we are continuing to make every effort to find the most appropriate care setting for this young woman.”