Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
1367. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the Ombudsman for Children's report, Take my Hand; his views on whether the chronic shortage of psychiatrists is the most critical factor in poor service for children requiring mental health services; and the way in which he is addressing the shortfalls in service provision. [32564/18]
View answerI recently received a copy of the Ombudsman for Children report "Take my Hand - Young People's Experiences of Mental Health Services". This is a valuable contribution to the future development of mental health policies and service overall for young people.
The development of all aspects of mental health services for young people, as reflected in the agreed HSE Service Plan 2018, remains a priority for Government. Services have benefited from the significant additional investment for mental health over recent years, which has resulted in an overall provision of around €910 million in the current year.
There are currently 69 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) teams, 4 CAMHS acute units and three Paediatric Liaison Teams. Approximately 18,800 children are expected to be referred to the CAMHS service this year, with around 14,400 to be seen by CAMHS professionals.
There are acknowledged difficulties in recruiting and retaining specialist CAMHS staff, particularly Consultant Psychiatrists. Intensive recruitment efforts are ongoing but there is currently a serious shortage of suitably qualified CAMHS Consultants at both national and European level. Steady progress is being made by the HSE in filling approved posts for mental health. Despite increasing demands on CAMHS overall, the HSE Service Plan 2018 has a target of 72% for referrals offered or first appointment and to be seen within twelve weeks. Individual cases professionally assessed as urgent receive priority access to services.
The HSE Service Plan aims to reduce waiting lists and to increase the number of CAMHS referrals to be seen this year by 27%, compared to 2017 (i.e. over 3,000 additional service users year on year). Improvements are also planned for Out-of-Hours liaison, seven-day response services, and progressing the CAMHS Day Hospital service nationally.
Counselling services at Primary Care level has been improved by the recent approval by Government to appoint 114 Assistant Psychologists and 20 Psychologists to assist young people. More recently, I have given approval to the HSE to put in place an additional 10 Advanced Nurse Practitioners specifically for the CAMHS services. These will be directed to areas of greatest service need nationally.
I am progressing also as a matter of priority with the HSE new initiatives to provide advice and counselling remotely via Tele-Psychiatry, or similar initiatives to improve access to the most appropriate supports to young people experiencing mental health difficulties.
The Deputy can rest assured that, in common with previous reports published by the Ombudsman for Children, the Department of Health and the HSE will give full consideration to this report in the context of improving mental health services overall for young people.
