He was being brought home drunk by police three or four times a week. Other times he was found unconscious on the street or in a public toilet after getting high from deodorant cans.

On August 15, 2021, Josh died. He was just 14 years old and was alone in the backseat of a car when a fire ignited. The Coroner is still investigating the circumstances.

"He died trapped in a car that caught fire," his distraught father said.

In the 18 months before Josh died he'd become addicted to alcohol, he also smoked marijuana and got high inhaling from aerosol cans. His addictions were spurred on by mental health issues that started when he was 12 years old.

For all of that time Josh's parents pleaded for help - from police, from health services and from Northern Beaches Hospital. But they say their struggling family was lost in the system.

Mental health workers said Josh had a drug and alcohol problem, while drug and alcohol services said he needed mental health support. Amid all of this, Andrew and Diana say the lack of an inpatient mental health service for youth and adolescents in the northern beaches is leaving kids like Josh with nowhere to go.

"Josh needed to be put somewhere for a little bit of time to dry out, for someone to talk to him, really talk to him and say 'what's going on'. Someone to properly assess his medication and whether he actually needed any at all, and then plan to get him back with us and we probably needed to be part of that as well," Mr Gill said.

Josh was often "bumped from service to service trying to get help", and his parents were often left out of any counselling sessions their son had. "We didn't know what we were doing, nobody else really knew where to give us some guidance," Mrs Gill said. "There's not really any sharing or coordination of information."

Josh had ADHD, was bullied at school and had been suspended multiple times, and when Greater Sydney went into COVID lockdown in late June 2021, his mental health spiralled further out-of-control.

"In the last month of his life he was diagnosed with psychosis from the effects of drugs and alcohol and I think he just lost control of himself," Mr Gill said.

"I'd say to Josh 'what are you doing' and he'd say 'escaping life'."

Josh stole alcohol regularly, and his parents allege takeaway bottle shops wouldn't question their son as he walked out with alcohol.

"He died at around 1.40am on Sunday, August 15. In the proceeding 12 hours he shoplifted from three separate liquor venues," Mr Gill said, alleging his son stole two bottles of spirits from one store, and two cartons of bourbon and coke from another. "These stores knew him, he was doing it all the time," he said.

Four days before Josh died, he was taken to NBH in handcuffs after becoming unconscious while in police custody. Mr Gill has obtained documents that show Josh arrived at hospital with blood on his face and legs, and he was suspected of being unconscious for 10 minutes.

Despite the seriousness of the incident, and the fact that Josh had been admitted every month in the six months prior, his parents allege he was not given a mental health assessment.

"The hospital never called us to say that he was there," Mr Gill alleges.

"Prior to Josh's death he had 50-plus interactions with medical people in that year alone. He was in pain, and we were in pain and in the end there was no-one to help us."

Last month, Mr Gill launched legal action against Northern Beaches Hospital, alleging a lack of mental health care that could have saved Josh's life.

"I thought that they'd failed to provide adequate and proper medical aid to Josh and that's a criminal offence, if they're found guilty, under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act of NSW," Mr Gill said.

Since then, Mr Gill has discussed the situation with Health Minister Brad Hazzard and has decided to withdraw his legal bid. Mr Gill said Mr Hazzard wants "to assess what pathways are available to ensure the provision of physical facilities" in order to address "paediatric acute mental health care requirements".

The Gills believe Mr Hazzard has been in discussions with the Northern Sydney Local Health District about acute paediatric mental health services in the northern beaches.

Mr Hazzard did not respond to the Northern Beaches Review's requests for comment. He also declined to explain where any new facilities would be located, when they would open, and what they would offer for juveniles and their parents/carers.

As Andrew and Diana, and their daughter Zoe, 13, wait for the health minister to deliver on his discussions, they're continuing their push for a dedicated inpatient mental health service for youth and adolescents on the northern beaches.

They're also pleading for a more holistic approach from health authorities.

"There's a disconnect between what's deemed to be drug and alcohol, and to be mental health," Mrs Gill said. "There's no central case manager that can try and coordinate things. There's no real interaction there for anybody to say 'oh shit, he's been to the hospital seven times'."

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Mrs Gill said many drug and alcohol services are on a voluntary admission basis. "A 12-year-old, who's affected by all sorts of things and has issues, it's their right to choose their own healthcare, and be in charge of their own healthcare without any real intervention or involvement of the family," she said.

"The only way you can get anything involuntary, which is the way we got pushed unfortunately because of the lack of services and the lack of funding, is through the justice system.

"We had to call on the police and other areas to help us. The only way we could get Josh into a facility in an involuntary capacity is really through a court order. But, that's up to a magistrate, not us, not the police. You have to basically get them charged with offences in order to get in front of the magistrate."

The Gills have been contacted by numerous northern beaches families who are going through similar struggles with their own children, and Andrew said the lack of mental health services for under 18s in the LGA is "absolutely not good enough".

"We have all of this talk around about mental health care, I think that fact clearly shows that it is just talk, mere words," he said.

"If there was any real commitment for youth and adolescent mental health care on the northern beaches, there would be a 24 hour, seven day a week fully-staffed inpatient youth and adolescent mental health care unit. That, in part, informs young people how to be resilient in our society.

They're also setting up a charity, the Josh Gill Foundation, and so far have a former supreme court judge, barristers and solicitors who will sit on the board.

The guilt and grief over what happened to Josh is still very raw as Andrew and Diana remember their "passionate and determined" son.

"He was a great little man, very kind and sensitive, very concerned about the world," Mr Gill said.

"He'd look after us and always ask me how I was going. Even in our darkest days he cared about me and about everyone else, and we had so many dark days in the end before his death

"He'd say 'Dad, how you going?'. It was difficult to answer because we were in crisis as a family as well."

Mr Gill, who is a solicitor, has spent the time since Josh's death seeking out his medical records and submitting freedom of information requests to find out exactly what happened to their son.

"We know what's happened, we think, in those final weeks, which we didn't know at the time," he said. "Those horrible circumstances we had leading up to Josh's death.

"We really owe it to younger generations to help them out a bit more."

Mr Gill admits he initially didn't think he'd survive the death of his only son.

"I didn't think I'd be here, but I've got some great friends," he said. "I'm determined to use all my guilt and grief to make sure good comes out of a very horrible situation and I think my little man would want that too. I know he would.

"As a society and parent we want to try and keep those people alive, and it's on my watch, I'm his Dad and I didn't do that so I've got to live with that."

The availability of mental health and drug and alcohol services for young people on the northern beaches has been reviewed, and options to increase these services are being considered, a Northern Sydney Local Health District spokesman said.

"Josh's interactions with the mental health and drug and alcohol services and the Gill family's representations have been important during this review," he said.

The spokesman said health authorities have met with the Gill family to talk through the care and treatment provided to Josh.

"Our heartfelt condolences are extended to the Gill family for their tragic loss," he said.

Despite repeated requests, Northern Beaches Hospital did not respond to the Review's request for comments.

For help in a crisis call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

If you are living in NSW and struggling with a mental health issue, call the Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511 at any time day or night for referrals to local mental health services.