A mother is suing NHS Tayside after the death of her teenage daughter, who took her own life.

Sophie Parkinson died in 2014, aged just 13. She had made two previous attempts on her life but her mother Ruth Moss said these had been viewed as "childish cries for help".

Although she had received care from NHS Tayside's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Mrs Moss said the risk assessment which had been made in Sophie's case was "hugely inadequate."

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The teenager had had "six years of really struggling and being in a system that let her down badly," she told BBC Scotland. Meanwhile two previous suicide attempts had been dismissed as "childish cries for help".

Earlier this month NHS Tayside announced an independent inquiry into mental health services at the Carseview Centre at Ninewells in Dundee after a local campaign group identified at least 10 suicides it claimed could have been avoided if care at the psychiatric unit had been better.

Mrs Moss, a nurse who previously lived in Liff, near Dundee, but now lives in Edinburgh said she was "absolutely sure" Sophie would still be alive if she had been given the right care.

"I hold NHS Tayside responsible for Sophie's death", she said.

She said although she had been a "bubbly, brilliant child" Sophie had been referred to CAMHS when she was just eight and her problems became "a lot worse" as she grew older.

"As Sophie's condition worsened she started to see a trainee psychologist," Mrs Moss told the BBC. "It was at that point really that Sophie became very unwell and it was at that point I felt the services started to let us down.

"She self-harmed quite significantly. She tried to kill herself on two previous occasions and neither of those were really taken seriously by NHS Tayside."

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Despite her daughter's problems worsening, the unit refused to admit her, Mrs Moss said. She said: "The feeling I was left with was she wasn't 'bad' enough. "It wasn't deemed appropriate."

Miss Moss said while she had no problem with Sophie being seen by a trainee clinical psychologist, there had been a lack of senior involvement in her risk assessment. "I came out feeling that Sophie was let down by a service that didn't take her seriously and didn't take me seriously," she said.

Meanwhile an internal investigation following Sophie's third, fatal attempt on her own life, was neither adequate nor independent, she said. "[It] was not robust and rigorous in my view. It tended to pick the things I'd complained about and answered them, but it wasn't an independent review process.

"NHS Tayside investigate NHS Tayside... there seems to be a flaw in that right from the start."

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Mrs Moss said the independent inquiry should be robust and rigorous.

She said it had been tough seeing Sophie's friends making progress although she kept in touch with them and their families. "When you lose a child you don't just grieve the loss of that child at that time. I've watched them grow up, I watch them learn to drive, I watch them go to university. My child will never have that opportunity."

An NHS Tayside spokeswoman said: "As this is a legal matter we are unable to comment. Every suicide is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the family."