WHSCT cuts weekend support for low-risk young people — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Western Health and Social Care Trust said Card Before You Leave now operates Monday to Friday, with no weekend or bank-holiday service, after introducing the change in August as part of wider savings.
- CAMHS now assesses low-risk out-of-hours attendees on the next working day rather than the next calendar day under WHSCT's revised arrangement.
- Card Before You Leave retains an unchanged pathway for high-risk cases, which continue to receive assessment and support based on their clinical needs, WHSCT said.
- Joe McEvoy said weekends and bank holidays are peak times for young people's mental-health distress; a Friday attendee may now wait until Monday, Tuesday after a bank holiday or Wednesday on a weekend with two bank holidays.
- Julie Middleton called for the service to be reinstated, saying a young person deemed low risk could move rapidly toward high risk and families need a clear pathway to help.
- Belfast Health Trust, Northern Trust, Southern Trust and South Eastern Trust made no changes to Card Before You Leave, making the reduction specific to WHSCT's north-west area.
- Mike Farrar said Northern Ireland's health and social care system faces an £800m funding gap, while health trusts proposed savings of up to 12% over three years.
Why it matters: For low-risk young people and their families, the material change is timing: a Friday presentation can now wait until Monday, Tuesday after a bank holiday or, on a two-holiday weekend, Wednesday. WHSCT says high-risk cases are unchanged and the reduction remains under review, amid an £800m funding gap and proposed health-trust savings of up to 12% over three years.
Ask SkimNews
