A family has ‘lost faith’ in Hertfordshire’s mental health facilities after their daughter was treated ‘appalling’.

Sam Lethbridge, 38, from Borehamwood, has written a letter to David Cameron after her 10-year-old daughter’s health deteriorated after the lack of help from CAMHS – Hertfordshire’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

The parents noticed their daughter at the age of five was struggling with basic reading and writing skills and after seeing a number of GPs it was identified that she had ADHD and Asperger’s.

In 2013 the family were referred to CAMHS but had to wait 18 weeks to get on the system. After three sessions she was discharged with the recommendation to ‘read a book’.

Her behaviour soon deteriorated again and they were re-referred to CAMHS and had to wait another 18 weeks.

Mrs Lethbridge said: “We had the most appalling treatment from CAMHS and we have lost faith in Hertfordshire care.

“It’s going to be a long journey. It has been so difficult. We only ever had one meeting with them and no work was ever done to help my daughter.

“There was no understanding at all. She was badly treated at school by the staff and was locked in a dark room without her shoelaces or belt so she couldn’t kill herself.

“We moved her to a school in South Gate but the damage had already been done and it was too severe.”

Mrs Lethbridge’s daughter was prescribed an anti-ADHD drug which side effects can include reduced appetite, anger and anxiety.

According to Mrs Lethbridge the drugs which were prescribed were the cause for the suicidal thoughts that her nine-year-old was having.

She said: “As soon as found out she was having suicidal thoughts we took her off the medication and she stopped having them.

“I know the hospital isn’t the right environment for her. She is mixing with 14 and 15 year old girls but she needs to mix with friends in her own age group. She just wants to be normal.”

In January 2015, her daughter was admitted to a hospital in London where she was given support and schooling.

According to Mrs Lethbridge CAMHS were told that they had to be involved in her after-care as well as Hertfordshire PALMS.

Mrs Lethbridge said: “We never heard anything from CAMHS again and we still haven’t.

“My daughter needs to be in specialist care and a specialist school. We will find what help we can for her to access the right school.

“I want to raise public awareness about these problems that are happening. It put such a financial strain on us.

“We had to sell our house and move into rented accommodation because we could not afford the house.

“It is not just my family that have been affected. There are other families that have gone through the same thing.

“We were let down by Hertfordshire and I never want to back to their care.”

Mrs Lethbridge has written a letter to David Cameron asking for answers to where the £1.25m that was apparently given to CAMHS.

Despite the letter being tweeted to Mr Cameron and physically sent to him, Mrs Lethbridge has not had any response from him.