Mr. Eoin Barry:

I have a couple of points to make on that. One is that the age changed recently enough, in the greater scheme of things, for CAMHS particularly, from 16 years of age to 18 years. It was raised. I do not want to speak for Dr. Whyte but I think most people working in the area would say the resources probably did not reflect the change in work, because as young people get older the complexity of their problems increases. The most complex cases CAMHS deals with would in the main be the patients aged between 16 and 18 years. Not always, but the majority would be.

Internationally there are a few different models. In Australia there is the young persons mental health service which covers early adolescence up to those in their early twenties. That is probably the best model but it is really the CPI that should answer this question because of the different specialty registry. There is a specialty for children and adolescents and one for adults. That is the difference. As social workers, we work generically so the age does not make as much of a difference but for young people attending services the difference has a very real impact for where they are attending. As I said, the age of 18 years legally has major change. The age of 16 years has a change but it is where they attend services. That arbitrary line, depending on how strictly it is enforced, and it is enforced in different places in different ways, can have a big impact on them. It is an area we need to address. I defer to my colleagues regarding how the specialties impact on it as well.