'Kent is lacking in mental health support for young people'

St John’s Ambulance responder Jade Knight discusses her work with the charity  Missing People to help young people who run away from home

Transcript

00:00Kent is lacking in the mental health support, especially in adolescents, in the child and

00:08adolescent teams. As someone who's experienced it, when I had to go and get support for my

00:14mental health, I've been sent to Essex and Manchester. As someone who's grown up in East

00:20Kent, that's not right. And I think we all can establish that that's not right. But that

00:27was what I had to do to get the help I needed. Because there's not a lot in Kent that is

00:34being offered to young people. But if it is being offered, there's generally such big

00:40gaps between the help that these kids are slipping through the net. I do think schools

00:48are really trying to put a push on the whole safeguarding children in school, supporting

00:53schools. But unfortunately, I think it's got to the point where it's gone too far for that.

01:01That should have been put in a lot earlier than it did.