A SOUTHAMPTON couple was "petrified" when a mental health service told them they did not have the staff to issue their son's prescriptions.

Their 14-year-old son has severe ADHD and autism and has episodes where he can become violent towards others, trash the house, or harm himself.

The teenager - whose family the Echo is not naming - relies on antipsychotic medication, as well as antidepressants, to keep him "on an even keel".

These are issued by CAMHS, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Hampshire.

His mother requested the repeat prescription as normal, but a week after making the request was told that the service had "run out of prescribers" and that "they could only apologise".

For two weeks, the family was kept in limbo, told by the mental health service that they would not be able to collect the prescriptions.

They are not able to collect these prescriptions from their GP or from hospital.

Speaking to the Echo the day before his son ran out of medication, the 48-year-old dad said: "If he doesn't take (the medication), he gets very violent. He takes his anger out on me.

"CAMHS has let us down massively."

He added that they were preparing to keep their son in the house and not let him out in public.

They would also not let him go to school, and were concerned about the impact on his education.

His mum, 52, said: "We do not know what to do. We can't just stop the medication, you have to be weaned off it.

"Why should our children have to go cold turkey and through major trauma by not receiving necessary medication?"

The family were only able to receive the prescriptions, just in time, after getting their school and local MP involved in the issue.

After the issue was resolved, his dad said: "It shouldn't take getting MPs involved and teachers and doctors just to get some medication. It is just disgraceful.

"It's very disturbing as a parent. It is a very stressful circumstance.

"It is a dangerous situation. Even at 14, he's a very strong lad and can do a lot of damage. He trashes the house.

"At the best of times, he doesn't really understand what his body is telling him and he doesn't know how to control it."

He added: "It's just been an absolute nightmare because we know what will happen to our son if he's not taking his medication and for two weeks we have been at our wit's end, not knowing what will happen.

"We were prepared to not send him into school and not go out into the public domain. He would have stopped doing his rugby training.

"We were telling family members not to come round because we do not know how he's going to react."

A spokesperson for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provide CAMHS in Hampshire, said: "The care of our children and young people is our absolute priority and we understand the concerns from families about access to medication.

"This issue has now been resolved.

"As a priority we are focusing on making sure we have additional resources in place to enable young people to access medication when they need it.”

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