I am a child and adolescent psychotherapist trainee and have been working in a large comprehensive school in North London. I am the only child psychotherapist at the school, which has many students with extremely complex mental health difficulties, many of whom have severe special needs.
The head of special educational needs told me at the beginning of the year that school should be about education and not about solving mental health problems (Letters, May 25). If the school has funds, it will spend them on a new teacher, not a child psychotherapist who can only see up to five students a day.
His words reflected the enormous stress and anxiety in the school system, and how loosely dispersed many staff members feel. There is a strong desire to have specific funding for child psychotherapists and mental health workers.
Mental health services for children and adolescents have extremely long waiting lists, and if help is provided, it is often too late.
I am also losing my job at an inner city elementary school, which also has very young children with severe trauma. The director has had to fire me due to lack of funds, even though she takes mental health issues very seriously.
I am very concerned that trained child and adolescent psychotherapists are not getting jobs in schools due to lack of funding, and that large numbers of young people are suffering alone and without support unnecessarily.
Name and address provided
