Dan Neville
Question:139. Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Health the number of inpatient beds of the 108 recommended in A Vision for Change that are in place for child and adolescent mental services. [40773/15]
View answerWednesday, 18 November 2015
Questions (139)
Written answers
'A Vision for Change' recommends the provision of 80 additional child and adolescent psychiatric in-patient beds nationally. Currently, there are 58 operational Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service ( CAMHS ) beds in the HSE, i.e. beds available to take a child / adolescent as an in-patient if the need arises. These beds are located as follows - 26 in Dublin, 20 in Galway and 12 in Cork.
A new purpose built 22 bed CAMHS in-patient unit located on the grounds of Cherry Orchard Hospital will open before the end of the year. The existing 14 beds in the current temporary facility will transfer across, thereby giving a net increase of 8 beds in the facility. This will increase the number of operational beds nationally to 66. Current staffing difficulties in the Eist Linn Unit in Cork has meant the closure of 8 CAMHS beds. The HSE is endeavouring to rectify this situation to allow the Unit to return to its maximum capacity of 20 beds, thus increasing overall national capacity to 74 CAMHS beds.
Funding is included in the HSE Capital Programme for planned infrastructural developments for the National Forensic Mental Health Service. This involves a new 120 bed hospital at Portrane, to replace the existing Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, along with a new 10-bed Child and Adolescent Mental Health Forensic Unit. These facilities are scheduled to be delivered in 2018.
The question of providing additional CAMHS bed provision, in line with A Vision for Change and overall resources availability over the longer term, will be kept under review by the Department of Health and the HSE.