Pat Casey
Question:32. Deputy Pat Casey asked the Minister for Health the targets in place for the recruitment of CAMHS personnel in CHO 7 during 2017. [12109/17]
View answerWednesday, 8 March 2017
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Written answers
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services/CAMHS is a specialist mental health service for children and young people. Referrals are accepted for those under the age of 18 where the severity and complexity of the presenting mental health disorder is such that treatment at primary care service level is unlikely to be unsuccessful. The service provides assessment and treatment through a multi-disciplinary team for young people and their families who are experiencing mental health difficulties.
Community Healthcare Organisation 7 provides Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to the majority of the population under the age of 18 within its boundaries. Other services are provided in a portion of the area, through the Lucena Services, which are managed through CHO 6.
The CHO7 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service currently operate 8 Community Teams, with a clinical staffing compliment of 76.7 whole time equivalent posts, including a Community Team currently being developed for the Kildare area, in line with new population growth locally. There are currently 8 vacancies on these teams and recruitment is underway to fill these posts.
In addition, the CAMHS service for the wider region will be enhanced by 13 extra whole time clinical staff members in 2017, across a range of disciplines including Psychiatry, Psychology, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Dietetics and Social Work. This includes approval for CHO7 to develop a multi-disciplinary CAMHS Eating Disorder Service. This Team will consist of a Senior Clinical Psychologist, Senior Social Worker, Senior Occupational Therapist, Senior Dietician, Clinical Nurse Manager, Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Staff Nurse. Recruitment of these additional posts is also underway.
CHO7 is also engaged in discussions with the HSE Mental Health Division in relation to initiating new developments across mental health services in 2017, including CAMHS. I, and my Department officials, will continue to closely monitor mental health developments across all CHO areas over the remainder of this year.