Case study
Kyle’s story
At age 11, Kyle experienced anxiety leading to depression. Further anxieties around academic performance surfaced in year 10 (age 14), following which Kyle was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.
By the end of year 11 (age 15), Kyle was on a vastly reduced timetable. Kyle left school after taking his GCSEs and became very low. He was referred to CAMHS but refused to engage with the Clinician, talking therapies, or discussions around medication. Two years later he was referred to Barnardo’s Buddies, but again did not want to engage. He would sleep until 5pm, play online games all night and hardly left the house for six months.
The CAMHS clinician wanted the Barnardo’s Buddy to maintain contact with Kyle by emailing and texting him to start with, allowing Kyle to realise himself that he wanted things to be different. The Barnardo’s Buddy support was then able to take place, using a mixture of cognitive behavioural approaches and solution-focused work to identify areas for change. Kyle began to identify educational goals and increase his motivation, develop short and long-term plans, and started to engage with a youth worker to identify appropriate opportunities.
Following Buddy support, Kyle is now in full-time education and has an active social life. Kyle’s sleep patterns have improved and at the time of discharge from CAMHS he consistently rated his mood as being 8 out of 10. He is managing his sleep and mood without needing to use medication. Kyle plans to go on to university at the end of his college course.
Feedback from Kyle’s family was that allowing him to “come around” to the idea of change and knowing that there was someone ready to support him was key.