Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 November 2012
185. Deputy Jim Daly asked the Minister for Health the reason that the Child and Mental Health Service will not accept children aged between 17 and 18 years of age with mental health issues for admission until January 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51941/12]
View answerThe development of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) has been prioritised by the HSE in recent years and considerable progress has been made to date.
A special allocation of €35 million was provided in Budget 2012 for mental health, in line with commitments in the Programme for Government. Funding from this special allocation will be used primarily to strengthen Community Mental Health Teams in both Adult and Children’s mental health services by ensuring, at a minimum, that at least one of each mental health professional discipline is represented on every team. Of the 414 posts approved to implement the €35 million package, 150 will be allocated to Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Teams of which 3 posts are filled and 84 posts have been accepted and candidates are currently going through the clearance processes. It is hoped that the bulk of the appointments will be made by the end of the year. It is envisaged that the completion of the multidisciplinary profile of current teams will help progress the expansion of CAMHS to all up to 18 years and reduce the waiting lists for this service.
The Deputy may also wish to note that the HSE has recently finalised "Access Protocols for 16 and 17 year olds to Mental Health Services" and these have been approved by the Management Team and will come into effect from 1 January next. In an effort to ensure that children are treated in an age appropriate manner, the new protocol provides that from 1 January 2013, CAMHS will at least accept referrals of all new cases of children up to their 17th birthday, and from 1 January 2014 or earlier where feasible CAMHS will accept referrals of all new cases of children up to their 18th birthday. Some of the teams are already accepting children up to 18, of which some can only do so on a case by case basis, but all teams continue to see open cases beyond their 16th birthday. The additional resources currently coming on stream will advance progress in this area.
