Ms Hannah N? Ghiolla Mhairt?n:

I do not think we have any particular update. We are probably more aware of the personal experiences. We have members telling us they bring their child to the emergency department and they are begging for their child to be admitted. Their child needs help and they just cannot get their child admitted. We had one member who was told that the only way her child could be admitted was if she refused to take her child home, in which case Tusla gets involved and the parent is given out to for refusing to take their child home. They cannot get support by going home. Parents are being forced into this extreme decision-making. They do not want to leave their child but if they take their child home they are not getting help. They are being told they will be referred over to CAMHS. We have parents going into the emergency department with their children in very urgent situations. A lot of the time they are given an urgent appointment and are seen within, let us say, two weeks. We have other parents who are discharged and are told they will get an urgent appointment but months later they still have not got one. They are desperate. There is nowhere for them to turn to. They have to go back to the emergency department. We have heard of hospitals refusing to discharge patients until an actual appointment date has been given by CAMHS because they are aware that this can happen. The acknowledgement that the supports are not in place is very widespread.