HE HAS tried to commit suicide and tells his parents he wants to take his own life every day.

Elliott McGahey is just ten years old and is on various medication, including anti-depressants, anti-psychotic drugs and tablets to help him sleep.

He has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, and was diagnosed after spending eight months at the West End Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit, which is run by Humber NHS Foundation Trust in west Hull.

However, he regularly self-harms and no longer attends St Nicholas Primary School in Cottingham Road, west Hull, as he ran out of school and tried to throw himself in front of a car.

He even threw himself out of his bedroom window in March.

His mother, Kasha Bennett, 28, of north Hull, caught his feet to save him.

Miss Bennett, who cannot work as Elliott has now been out of school for almost four months, has taken steps towards making an official complaint to Humber NHS Foundation Trust as she believes her son is not receiving enough support.

She said she and her partner, Paul McGahey, 32, do not know where to turn.

She said: "Not a day goes by when I don't cry because it's heartbreaking.

"To hear my son say he wants to die rips me apart every single day.

"He sees a consultant from the mental health trust every three months, but he hasn't had one-to-one support.

"No one is giving him any therapy or showing understanding of his condition.

"From the beginning, it was hard work to get anyone to assess him properly.

"Then, when we got him to West End, we thought things were looking up.

"Then we got a diagnosis and there was support for about two weeks until he got back to school.

"But now it's as if we have just been left."

Elliott, who has also attacked family members, has now been off school for 15 weeks, as Miss Bennett said the school believes he is a health and safety risk and more support is needed for him.

Miss Bennett, who has two younger children, said she does not blame the school and praised them for their efforts to keep in touch.

But she said she feels let down by education officials, as well as the health services, as she still does not know when her son might be able to return to the school or begin to attend another.

Miss Bennett said: "I feel let down by the trust and I feel let down by education.

"It's the lack of communication and the way the system is, trying to get him support at school.

"We have been offered a limited amount of teaching support, but not enough."

Dr Sandra Wheatley, a social psychologist with a special interest in family and parenting, who is based in the Midlands and works across the globe, said Elliott's case was "extremely rare".

She said: "There are incidences of young children diagnosed with autism and Asperger's.

"It's very rare for him to be on this amount of medication.

"Frankly, you only have to look around to see there is a world of difference between a child being very unhappy and a child being mentally unwell.

"As it is so rare, it means there are very few services set up to specifically help the child as an individual and the parents and carers.

"It is not something I have encountered before."

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