Ms Sinéad Glennon:

As the Senator has mentioned the CAMHS waiting lists have hit a high and there are unacceptable wait times. The November data that was supplied to the committee has 748 children in total on the waiting list, 222 of whom are waiting more than 12 months. As Mr. Reaney said, we started a CAMHS service enhancement project. We have nominated a dedicated lead to that project who has a clinical background as the principal psychology manager. This lead person has been working very closely with the teams to develop their own plans as it is not a one-size-fits-all. It depends on other local services and it depends on the geographic area. We have made very strong improvements with some of the teams, especially with team C. It peaked at 209 earlier this year. These are the December figures because we do not yet have full figures for this year so far, but it is now down to 146 on the total waiting list. Team B is another example. It peaked at 100 in August 2017 and is now down to 66 on its list. It is a very concerted piece of work with the team and developed by the team, to improve it ways of working to look at what is the best possible mix with the needs of the child and the family, and also with the team members available. We acknowledge that in some of our teams there are just not enough staff on the ground, particularly when one factors in maternity leave and so on. Seven and a half additional posts have just been signed off as part of the development funding of the national team and these posts have been targeted towards the teams with people waiting more than 12 months and they are specifically identified to disciplines that the teams have said would make the most difference. We are confident that over the next 12 months there will be a considerable improvement in CAMHS.

The Senator spoke of the family therapists. We have a number of these posts across the system but we would like to have a lot more. The training piece is quite lengthy. In some teams we have one person who is trained in family therapy. If that person leaves the team we also lose that skill. As part of the CAMHS enhancement project, we are trying to develop co-ordinated team-based training plans that we will collate up to one CHO-wide training plan to identify training needs over the next years, and to potentially bring the trainers into our area rather than having people travel elsewhere for training.

Our rates of suicide are above average. It is an issue especially in Cork city versus Cork county. Kerry also has rates that are higher than the national average. Both counties peaked in 2012. The Senator asked why this is. The honest answer is that I do not know. There is strong research linking unemployment and suicide figures. Obviously, it is a multi-factorial piece. We have strong structures in place following the publication of the Connecting for Life plans. The Kerry plan was published at the end of May and the Cork plan was published in July. There are dedicated project teams, a steering group and a number of work streams. There is a lot of involvement from community and voluntary agencies. The community helped us to write the plans and there was wide-spread consultation across the two counties. The plans are very much focused on what can be done internally, be it social prescribing, better links with first responders, better ways to identify people who are potentially at risk and targeting services towards them.

We are very fortunate in Cork to have the National Suicide Research Foundation. We work very closely with Professor Ella Arensman and her team there. They have conducted a very in-depth observational piece of work over the last years where they interviewed families who were bereaved by suicide. The team tried to gain better insight into the whole picture around the time that led up to the suicide or other various links. Our work is usually informed by research and this brings a great strength to the area also. Quite often the figures we have around suicide are a little bit behind; we must wait for coroners' reports, for example. The National Suicide Research Foundation is working to implement a real-time data system, which would give us improved visibility over potential emerging trends and we would not be reliant on anecdotal evidence. Often the media reporting is over inflated, it is not the true figures.