A recent judgment made about a 17-year-old girl detained in a secure unit under a Detention and Training Order made by the Youth Court is disturbing. The likelihood of the girl committing suicide was almost a certainty – and the plan of the local authority and the NHS lacked any detail in how this should be addressed.
A psychiatrist diagnosed a range of issues, most of which will be familiar to those working in early years. Insecure attachment disorder, emotionally unstable personality disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder and borderline learning difficulties. This is an extraordinary list and in many ways difficult to comprehend. But what seems particularly baffling is the psychiatrist’s view that this did not meet the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis of mental illness. And then in a subsequent report, the psychiatrist said these conditions did not impair the functioning of the girl’s mind such that she could not make sound decisions.
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