Teen mental health

[Starlightstargazer]

I just don’t know what to do.
My teen daughter has SEND and everything has gone to pot since starting secondary school 2 years ago. Since end August, she’s had really bad mental health problems, with several attempts on her own life. As soon as we remove one thing e.g knives, she finds another. Recently it’s been medication overdose.
Shes under Cahms, crisis team but she won’t engage with them. She’s on sertraline which has just increased again and started ADHD meds last week.
ive begged Cahms for her to go into a secure unit as I can’t keep her safe. They said this is a definite no due to her SEND.

Nothing seems to help. Every time things look a tiny bit brighter, it all comes crashing down. She’s regularly messaging a friend saying ‘RIP plus date’ of ‘I’ve got plans to do x on y date’.

the impact on all of us as a family is huge. The stress is unbelievable. It doesn’t help that we have been waiting for an ehcp for 18 months and now the specialist provision say her MH is too bad to accept 😢.

Has anyone got any words of wisdom to help?

What are the triggers with school? Would it be worth trying a new/smaller school? I wonder if missing so much primary with Covid and going into secondary would have made it worse?

Can you stop/cut down on her phone usage? I would worry that she might be looking up things which aren’t helping.

Is there anything that helps/improves her mental health?

Thanks so much for replying. She’s had a lot of trauma in the past 3 years, with no help for it (on waiting list). Her SEN needs have not been met at 2 secondary schools we have tried and there has been a lot of bullying. She hasn’t been to school since September, which is obviously not good. School have tried various things such as reduced timetable.
She won’t engage with anything. Won’t leave the house for walks. I’ve restricted her phone a lot.
Cahms just say we have to carry on and wait to see if increased dose works plus adhd meds.
we are literally at breaking point

Is there a more specialist school in your area which could help? I know it can be really difficult if she’s too ‘switched on’ for that kind of school. Appreciate that’s not the most PC way to say it but hopefully you know what I mean.

Are the needs all ADHD/depression related? E.g not physical as well?

I think sometimes it is a bit of a waiting game until you can find the right medication.

Getting out the house does seem key. Appreciate that might be so hard to achieve but it will get harder otherwise. Is there anywhere she will go? Anything she enjoys like swimming or something?

If you can afford it I would try and see a private GP if you can