Dr. Brendan Doody:

The demand for inpatient services has not diminished appreciably during the period of the Covid pandemic. Notwithstanding, obviously, the implications of Covid on service delivery, the inpatient services are running at about 85% of the number of admissions this time last year.

It is important to remember that the total number of admissions to the HSE-funded units last year increased 50% on the previous year. The increased capacity has meant a greater number of admissions. It has also allowed services to respond more quickly to admissions of children when inpatient treatment is required and has resulted in a reduction in children being admitted to adult facilities.

In the inpatient setting, while there are obviously restrictions around service delivery, all the young people have access to full multidisciplinary inputs. In community services, there has been a shift away from face-to-face consultation to greater use of technology such as telephone calls, Skype calls and similar technologies offering a video link. This has proved very effective and useful in some instances. It does not, however, totally supplant face-to-face interactions. At this point, services are looking at how to increase capacity to deliver more services in a face-to-face context, taking into account considerations around Covid-19. This involves looking at facilities and conducting risk assessments to ensure there is a process in place. There was a fall-off in demand for community services and the number of referrals received. However, services are expecting the numbers to increase significantly when young people start to return to school in the autumn. We usually find that referrals to mental health services reduce during school holidays. This is not a school holiday as we have experienced and known school holidays until now. Young people remain under a significant degree of stress and one would expect there to be a pent-up demand for services. It is important, therefore, that services plan for the expected increase in referrals after the summer.