A DISTRAUGHT mother is terrified she will end up 'burying' her son after he was sent nearly 200 miles for mental health care.

Lorraine Hollingworth is devastated her 17-year-old son Del Harrison has been left so far away from his support network, saying it is worsening his condition.

For nearly a month the teenager has been staying at the Cygnet Hospital Bury near Manchester, despite the family living in Chilton near Didcot.

As it is a 380 mile round trip, Ms Hollingworth has only been able to see her son once since he was moved on Friday, September 8.

The mum-of-four said: "I am just terrified that one day I am going to get a call and I am going to have to bury him - that's a mum's worst fear.

"He has been separated from his support system and this is not doing him any good being so far away.

"The drive is several hours and to see Del as much as possible I have to stay over, which is costing a lot of money.

"Because we are not there every week to see him, he's starting to think we do not care about him."

Ms Hollingworth said Del experienced mental health problems from a young age, after his dad died when he was four-years-old.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia when the family lived in Sussex, but upon moving to Oxfordshire his diagnosis was changed following re-testing and he was taken off medication.

But everything came to a head once again at the beginning of September when Del stayed overnight at the John Radcliffe Hospital following an overdose.

Before Del was sent away, he and his family spoke with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) team where it was agreed for his safety he should go into hospital.

But Ms Hollingworth said they were not told he would be sent across the country because of a lack of available beds nearby.

Ms Hollingworth, who was a photographer before becoming her son's full time carer, said: "We all agreed to it thinking Del would be in Oxford or maybe even Wiltshire.

"I don't think he would have willingly gone if he had known he would have been so far away from us.

"I've asked and asked for him to be transferred, looked up wards in closer counties but still they have done nothing, we don't even have a date for when he could be transferred.

"And all the time he is just stuck there, getting worse and worse - he's self harming and I am just so terrified he will go too far one day."

Earlier this year it was revealed that as many as 478 adult residents with mental health problems have been sent out of the county in the past three years, with the furthest travelling 532 miles to New Craigs Hospital in Inverness to receive care.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is commissioned by NHS England to provide 18 beds for children and young people in Oxfordshire.

Spokeswoman for Oxford Health Charvy Narain said: “While we work with our NHS colleagues to place patients locally as far as possible, some patients may need specialist care which is not commissioned locally.

“We appreciate that out of area placements are distressing and inconvenient for patients and families and we will continue to work with NHS colleagues and the families of young people who have had to access services outside Oxfordshire, to offer them a more appropriate bed as soon as possible.”

The trust said it currently only has two CAMHS inpatients in out of area beds.

At a recent meeting, directors at CAMHS were told young people waiting to be seen or receive some form of treatment were waiting longer than the 12 week-waiting targets.

A report stated this was due to a 'lack of available staffing in the northern and southern areas of the county.'

To tackle the CAMHS bed pressures, the trust has been working with NHS England (NHSE).

This has included the NHSE convening a quality summit for the South Region and its announcement of a bidding process for additional funding to make crisis pathways more responsive.