Campaign opposes cuts to children's mental health services in Lewisham
A petition has been launched to protect Lewisham's mental health services from Council cuts. The campaigners say:
Lewisham Council is planning to cut children’s mental health (CAMHS) funding by £150,000 over the next 2 years. This follows a £94,000 cut last year and is on top of NHS efficiency savings demanded by the government.
The Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign, together with staff, patients and their parents, believe the current situation cannot continue - more money is desperately needed, not less!
At least 3 jobs will be lost, on top of 2 jobs that were lost last year. This equates to hundreds of appointments a year disappearing.
- Waiting lists, already too long, will get longer.
- Clinicians will be forced to make impossible decisions about which cases are less serious, which children will have to wait longest and who will not get the best care.
- More children will go to A&E if these cuts happen. When young people are in crisis, they often attend A&E because community services are overstretched. This is distressing for them, it is not the suitable environment and it adds pressure to the hospitals.
We believe that every mental health problem has the potential to become critical if untreated - especially for children and young people. Lewisham has a number of risk factors that mean our young people’s mental health is worse than average. We cannot afford to increase this risk by increasing the number of children not receiving adequate help in the community.
As well as signing and sharing this petition you can help by:
Joining us to lobby the council - Wednesday, 17th January at 6.45pm
Coming to our public meeting on Tuesday, 6th February @ 7.30pm @ New Cross Learning
Attending a protest outside the council meeting on 21st February which will have the final power to ratify the proposed cuts.
