Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022
62. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Health the status of the implementation of the south Kerry CAMHS review recommendations; the status of the State-wide review and prescription audit and of a review into north Kerry CAMHS; the supports provided by the HSE to parents and children affected by the CAMHS scandal since the launch of the look back review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7841/22]
View answerThe recent review of the south Kerry CAMHS comprised 74 pages and 35 recommendations and it proclaimed the contact it had with parents, patients and former patients who are now adults. However, many of them have been in touch with me and told me that there has not been much contact with them, that there is no care plan in place, that they have not seen a psychologist who must be independent of the current team and that they feel their questions are not being listened to, heard or answered.
In regard to those parents who have not been contacted, what does the Minister propose to do with regard to contacting them, giving them what is needed and extending the review to the parents in north Kerry who feel just as aggrieved?
I thank the Deputy for the question. We have discussed this matter several times in the past three and a half weeks.
Six of the 35 recommendations in the Maskey report have been implemented, with 13 currently being implemented. Having read the report, the Deputy will know that some of the recommendations can be implemented straight away but others will take time. The HSE has committed to implementing them all as quickly as possible. I have sought fortnightly updates from the HSE on progress. I will continue to do that.
On the current situation, I meet the chief officer, Michael Fitzgerald, three or four times a week. I met him last Thursday morning on the very issues raised by the Deputy. The consultant psychiatrist post at south Kerry CAMHS is, unfortunately, still vacant. That has not changed just because the report was issued. The HSE does not expect to have a permanent consultant in the short term and on that basis it has put additional support into the team. A dedicated consultant lead is in place and additional support is provided by other consultants. Online consultant appointments have been offered. In the long term, the HSE will establish a clinical support team in Killarney to provide a point of contact and support in the future. This will take a little time to do. The HSE will be in direct contact with the young people and families shortly with details of that clinical support team. The HSE has been working over the past couple of weeks to get this clinical support team in place.
As the Deputy will know, the 227 families were invited to a meeting. To date, 198 have taken up the invitation to that meeting for the purposes of open disclosure. They have been informed of the situation in regard to each young person. As rightly stated by the Deputy, some of them are now over 18 and they are getting support in adult services. We can put in place supports such as talk therapies, cognitive behavioural therapies and the psychosocial supports that these people need. We are working towards that. I will come back on the other issues in my next slot.
I thank the Minister of State. There is an obvious problem with recruitment. Things are going to have to change. At one stage, we received a glib reply to the effect that this is a €200,000 per annum post and so there is no reason people would not want to travel to Kerry and stay there. It is not just about psychiatrists. Consultants who go to the general hospital need support staff, resources, equipment and, in many cases, an office. That has to change as part of the recruitment strategy.
The Minister of State mentioned that the Killarney team will be in place "shortly". What is meant by "shortly?" On the cases in north Kerry, we need an extension into all of those families. What is happening with them? We need a State-wide review and an audit of medication and medicating practices, which are the issues at the root of 90% of the problems here.
In regard to north Kerry, we addressed this again last Thursday. There will be an audit in north Kerry, similar to the audit in south Kerry. The chief officer has informed me that he is currently trying to get a consultant of the calibre of Dr. Seán Maskey to do the north Kerry audit. He is looking outside of Ireland in that regard. Dr. Maskey will not be carrying out the audit in north Kerry. To make sure the audit is independent, the chief officer will seek a consultant from outside of Ireland.
On the national audit, I met with the Mental Health Commission yesterday. It is also doing a review. Dr. Susan Finnerty, the chief inspector, will oversee this review. She has already secured a consultant psychiatrist from Scotland and one from Ireland to ensure the review will be completely independent.
On the HSE audit, we are still finalising the details in that regard. It will commence in quarter 1. I expect it to commence in the next couple of weeks.
I thank the Minister of State. They are all good proposals, but I cannot stress enough the urgency and the importance of communication with the patients and their families. I was contacted by one family whose daughter suffered from chronic fatigue and experienced social anxiety going into secondary school, in respect of which she was put on antipsychotic medication which is used to treat schizophrenia, mania and other types of serious illness. Those who are already aggrieved, damaged and hurt by the system that is in place need answers and they need them now. I urge the Minister of State to ensure there is communication with them, and to tell them what is happening and when a care plan will be place. There are many more families out there. This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are at least as many families in north Kerry subject to the same practices that we heard about in regard to south Kerry.
As the Deputy will know, it is very important that these reviews are conducted independently. It is for that reason the chief officer is seeking a consultant from outside of Ireland to do the review in north Kerry, which is really important. My complete and utter focus at the moment is on getting the supports for the young people who need them.
The Deputy knows as well as I do that there are challenges. The post has been vacant since 2016 even though it was funded. Prior to Christmas and the publication of the report, I travelled to Tralee to meet the team there. There are some really good people working there, but there are vacancies on the multidisciplinary teams in north and south Kerry. That is the purpose of putting in place the clinical support team in Killarney. As soon as I have more details, I will revert to the Deputy. My focus at the moment is on getting the supports for those children and young adults as quickly as possible. They have suffered enough. They need the talk therapies, cognitive behavioural therapies and psychosocial supports as a matter of urgency.
