Young people like Jess need the safety net. But austerity has destroyed it | Frances Ryan

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Councils are buckling under the strain of families in crisis, thanks to catastrophic cuts to children and young people’s services

If ministers wish to understand a changing Britain, they would do well to talk to Jess.

As a teenager in the early 2000s, life with her parents was hard. By the age of 15, Jess was homeless and sleeping anywhere she could: her gran’s, a canal boat, even a shopping centre fire escape. The trauma of it all triggered severe mental health problems and soon she was regularly self-harming. In the end, she tried to take her own life. Ask Jess what caught her and it can be boiled down to a safety net: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) for mental health support, and a place at a specialist youth hostel.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2NFi9ln

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