6 hours agoShareSaveJoanna MorrisBBC Shared Data UnitShareSaveGetty ImagesThree women whose teenage sons died after becoming addicted to drugs have told the BBC the system failed their children.Anita Morris, Nicola Howarth and Kate Roux spoke to the BBC as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the failings of drug treatment for young people.It found significant disparities in community care and a lack of state-funded residential facilities for under-18s.Analysis shows more than half of the 16,000 children in drug and alcohol treatment in the past year were 15 or younger.National Drug Treatment Monitoring System data shows a 13% rise in under-18s seeking support in 2024-25, yet experts and families say many are not receiving the help needed.The BBC found disparities in community care, gaps in strategy and a shortage of beds for those in crisis.Will Haydock, from drugs charity Collective Voice, says a consistent national strategy is needed.His calls are echoed by the three mothers who believe more effective treatment could have saved the lives of their boys – Olly Barnett, Alfie Nichol-Brown and Ben Nelson-Roux.While they have never met, the women share the same experience of seeing their children battling addiction and having to fight for years to get the right support.Anita, whose son Olly died at 17, said: “We need safe spaces for children buying £1 tablets off the street and developing addictions.”We need places for them to get off drugs with proper support, where they’re safe and their parents aren’t watching them in agony, wondering if they’ll die in their bedroom.”Anita MorrisThe majority of children are treated in the community and most will never need residential treatment. For those who do, options are limited.There are no state-run specialist residential facilities for under-18s in the UK and just a handful of beds available at costly private facilities, the BBC understands.Experts told the BBC changes in drug trends, including a stark rise in ketamine and solvent use, meant demand was growing for specialist care.The most commonly used substance by those in treatment in 2024-25 was cannabis, with 86% listing it as problem for them.Drug treatment is the responsibility of councils to fund and co-ordinate locally.Olly, Ben and Alfie received community-based support via a network of different services, including social services, the NHS and local drug organisations.Each of their mothers said collaboration had been lacking and residential treatment impossible to secure.Anita, who had to manage Olly’s detoxification regime at home, said: “I was told there was nowhere for him to be sent, no detox ward, no in-patient service.”I looked at going private but with everything I had, the car I could have sold, I would have been lucky to have afforded a week.”He wouldn’t have relapsed if he’d had proper care, detox and counselling all at the same time – he could have got better.”Councillor Jill Rhodes, who chairs Cheshire East Council’s adults and health committee, said the authority received one of the lowest Public Health Grants in the country but commissioned a range of drug and alcohol treatment services.She said it recognised a “clear gap” in residential provision for young people and would “strongly support” a national approach to address the shortfall.Kate, from Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, described services involved in Ben’s care as “horribly overstretched”.She said he had been on the books of more than a dozen organisations when she found him dead in an adult homeless hostel at 16.”Every strand [of his treatment] was done by a different group in the community and they had very little communication with each other, very little communication with us and no joined up plan,” she said.”As he spiralled, his phone pinged and pinged with Snapchat adverts for drugs and threats from dealers.”He had drugs workers who saw him a maximum of once a fortnight – they couldn’t compete with that level of coercion.”He needed a residential place because he never felt safe, we couldn’t make him safe.”A North Yorkshire Council spokeswoman said Ben had been moved to the homeless shelter as a “last resort following extensive searches for suitable accommodation”.She said the “heart-breaking situation” highlighted the need for greater national specialist provision.Kate RouxNicola Howarth, from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, said her son Alfie had seen “at least 20″ drug workers between the ages of 12 and 17.”There was no consistency with his care,” she said. “I was always having to kick off and scream like a naughty child to get someone to listen to me.”Alfie had a cocaine problem so severe he lost nose cartilage and was using “all day, every day”, spending hundreds of pounds a week on his addiction.His mother could not afford the £23,000 she was quoted for a private residential rehab placement – at the time of his death, she was still saving up.On Alfie’s 18th birthday, she received a call from an adult residential facility.She said: “They said th …
