Dr. Philip Dodd:

I refer to Senator Ó Céidigh's query on whether we in the HSE have failed young people. Based on the testimony I heard last week from those individual cases - I read and followed some of the proceedings - the HSE did fail those young people. The HSE cannot justify that. The lived experience of some aspects of CAMHS is not acceptable. I accept this but to suggest that all staff members working in CAMHS need to hear and live such a negative narrative about the services they try to deliver is not a positive suggestion. We are trying to develop a recovery-oriented mental health service for children and adults in Ireland. This is a difficult job to do given all the constraints I have outlined. It is not accurate to suggest that senior management in the HSE is somehow so disconnected from the front line. I am on the senior management team of the mental health division. I work part time as a consultant psychiatrist. I try to support adults who have an intellectual disability and a mental health problem. I am absolutely familiar with the lived experience of trying to access better services. I am new to the mental health division in the HSE and since I have joined the senior management team, I see a group of people who are trying to their best to come up with solutions and to remain as positive as possible in coming up with the best outcomes for our service users as they access our services.