Health Minister Chris Picton orders review into mental health treatment of suicidal teen

Every day is a battle to keep this teenage boy alive. Now Chad’s desperate family say they may have to resort to seeking treatment for him overseas.

The family of a distressed and suicidal teenage boy say he has been so failed by the health system that they are considering taking him overseas for treatment.

In the latest troubling incident, police and ambulance officers were called to 14-year-old Chad’s home twice on Thursday after he began hallucinating and beat himself in the head with an arm already cast in plaster.

It was only after The Advertiser raised Chad’s case with Health Minister Chris Picton that he ordered a review, and an urgent meeting was arranged for Friday.

An independent, interstate psychiatrist will now be appointed to review Chad’s care – although the family has not been given a timeline for when the review will be complete.

Chad’s mother Nicole – who did not want their surnames published – said the family is at breaking point.

“He’s on a one-way street to death and nobody’s giving a s***,” the 49-year-old said.

“He’s in a war zone in his mind and no one is helping him.

“My main focus is to keep him alive every day because he wants to end it.”

Chad began hallucinating at the age of seven and “sees and hears things that aren’t there” daily.

Chad with a broken hand, 2022. Picture: Supplied by family

He runs into traffic, self-harms, lashes out at family, damages property and has threatened to kill others.

His family have to call for help, including to ambulance officers, up to four times a week but say Chad is regularly turned away from hospital without being assessed, or is sent home with a sedative.

Nicole said doctors have told her Chad’s behaviour is due to puberty hormones – but

they have also prescribed him antipsychotic and antidepressant medications.

The family want Chad admitted to a health facility where his medications can be adjusted and monitored until he improves, rather than being left to manage this at home – but say their requests have been rejected.

Following inquiries by The Advertiser Chief Psychiatrist John Brayley arranged a meeting with the family on Friday.

They say Dr Brayley pledged to ask an independent psychiatrist in Western Australia to consider reviewing Chad’s case. If they cannot take it on, he would ask another psychiatrist in New South Wales.

However, the family said there was no change suggested to Chad’s treatment in the meantime.

Chad, who is Aboriginal and lives in the Riverland, was diagnosed with autism around age five.

His family say he was “one of the brainiest kids” when he was younger, who loved dinosaurs, cars and the West Coast Eagles AFL club.

But Nicole says her son is “not the same kid” and has deteriorated in recent years.

Chad receives NDIS funding and now has carers with him at all times.

He is a patient of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and has been prescribed an antipsychotic, antidepressant and a mood stabiliser, plus medication for problems with his heart, liver and diabetes – which his mother believes were caused by the amount of medicine he takes.

“The first time Chad told me he was seeing things … was at the age of seven,” Nicole said.

“He said there was a lady in his bedroom and I had to walk him back to bed.

“Another night … he was looking up into the corner of the room and laughing … (and) he said ‘There’s somebody up there’.

“He has seen a whole 15 people in my backyard … chasing him, wanting to ask him questions.

“He makes these noises … he says to block out the noises in his head.

“He’s shaken, he’s scared. For us it’s scary to watch … but to him it’s 10 times worse.”

Chad, with stepfather Stjepan, and disability carers Lucky and Male. Picture: Emma Brasier.

Chad has been admitted to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Mallee Ward for children in mental distress, including being held in a bare “inclusion room” with only a mattress on the floor.

In one incident in August last year Chad told his mother he was kicked in the groin by a Mallee Ward security guard after a fight with another patient.

“We never knew what happened until he came home and he was full of bruises,” Nicole said.

The Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner is now investigating.

In another incident earlier this month Chad broke his hand during a violent outburst.

After an X-Ray at Murray Bridge Hospital his carers say they were told to take him to the WCH.

Once there, his carers say they were told there was no doctor available and to come back the following week.

Nicole said it was only when she threatened to sue the hospital that a doctor became available.

In a statement the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network said Murray Bridge Hospital can only “treat broken limbs by providing pain relief and immobilise the limb with a sling or splint”. Cases requiring surgical intervention must be referred to Adelaide.

Nicole and her husband Stjepan, 55, say they asked Chad’s treating doctor at the WCH earlier this year to reassess his medication and that request prompted the doctor to “drop care” and tell the family to return to their GP.

In a statement the Women’s and Children’s Health Network said Chad was “still under the care of” CAMHS and “has an upcoming appointment”.

It said it “considers Aboriginal children a priority population” in mental health treatment and decisions about admission to Mallee Ward were based on “principles of best interest and least restrictive care”.

Mr Picton said he had asked Dr Brayley to “make contact with this family to discuss their concerns and to offer an independent review into the best care going forward, including whether a longer-term hospital admission is appropriate”.

“I empathise with the difficulties faced by this family over a number of years,” Mr Picton said.

Stjepan said the family’s situation was “that bad” they were considering treatment options in Croatia, where he has relatives.

He has written to federal and state MPs asking about early access to his superannuation and has contacted the Croatian embassy in Canberra.

“How is it going to look for Australia if we take a First Nation’s child out of his own country to be treated somewhere else?” Stjepan said.

“He needs a psychiatrist that will put him into hospital. You’ve got to test those drugs and you can’t test them at home.

“Instead you’ve got a 14-year-old child, he threatens to kill people, he self-harms, he threatens to kill himself and our solution to this is send him home?”

Originally published as Health Minister Chris Picton orders review into mental health treatment of suicidal teen