Vol. 571 No. 1
847 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Health and Children the level of support and services within the healthcare sector for under 18 year olds with psychiatric difficulties; and his plans, within the context of general healthcare reform, to change or improve these services. [19949/03]
944 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of children on the waiting list for psychiatric assessment; the maximum wait for an assessment; if he intends to achieve the Irish College of Psychiatrists recommended minimum of 120 consultant child psychiatrists for under 16s; and if so, the way in which he intends to do so. [20573/03]
945 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children if he plans to provide in-patients facilities for under 16s who are suicidal or at risk of harming themselves or others; if he intends to provide services specifically for children over 16 who are currently dealt with by adult services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20574/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 847, 944 and 945 together.
A working group was established by the Minister for Health and Children in June 2000 to make recommendations on how child and adolescent psychiatric services should be developed in the short, medium and long-term to meet identified needs.
The first report of the working group on child and adolescent psychiatry was published in March 2001 and recommended the enhancement and expansion of the overall child and adolescent psychiatric service including the recruitment of additional consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists.
In furtherance of the group's recommendations, additional revenue funding of €6.061million was allocated in 2002 to provide for the appointment of additional consultants, for the enhancement of existing consultant-led multidisciplinary teams and towards the establishment of further teams. A further €1.64 million was allocated in 2003.
The first report also recommended that a total of seven child and adolescent in-patient psychiatric units for children ranging from six to 16 years should be developed throughout the country. Project teams have been established to develop child and adolescent in-patient psychiatric units in Cork, Limerick, Galway and one in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area – at St. Vincent's Hospital, Fairview.
848 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason it is so difficult to access a social worker at weekends; and the reason so few of the health boards have weekend cover for emergency psychiatric cases. [19950/03]
In the mental health services, social workers operate as a part of a multidisciplinary consultant-led team. At all times, each catchment area has a consultant on call to deal with emergency psychiatric cases. Generally, in the event of the unavailability of a social worker, it would be the practice for other members of the team to examine a patient in need of treatment and to arrange necessary follow-up.
In terms of the accessibility of social work services generally, the Deputy will be pleased to learn that a number of steps have been taken at national level over the past years to improve the recruitment and retention of social workers in the health service. These include the provision of significant additional training places and also the establishment of the national social work forum to progress a number of key issues for the social work profession arising from the recommendations included in the report of the expert group on various health professions. A further initiative is the undertaking, under the aegis of the forum, of a social work workload management study with a view to facilitating the best use of professional social work time. The effectiveness to date of these initiatives can be seen in the substantial increase of 39% in the overall numbers of social workers employed in the health service in whole-time equivalent, WTE, terms from end 2000 to end 2002.
