David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I suggest that the committee follow up with the HSE because September is a long time ago. Information should be supplied to people who have asked questions. This is something that, hopefully, we can help with today.

I want to deal with the surveys that were done. It is obvious that we need to regulate, reform and resource this sector. Any of us who have had any experience of families of children and young people with mental health difficulties, particularly children with autism, given the unique challenges they face and which the witnesses have set out, know that it is heartbreaking. I want to go through some of what was said in the survey of October of last year, which I imagine was coming from parents. One of the parents stated: "Was told that my child’s suicidal thoughts and plans were not really mental health issues and just their autism”. Another comment indicated:

Child refused support for severe anxiety, self-injurious behaviour and suicidal ideation as they kept saying it was due to autism and they do not deal with autistic children.

I want to outline one parent’s experience, which I thought sums up the experience of many families, and I have dealt with some myself. With regard to the parent of a nine-year-old daughter, the survey report states:

Parent 1 shared the referral letter sent and refusal letter received at the time of their daughter’s mental health crisis. The referral letter - sent by the family’s GP asking for CAMHS engagement – sets out how this 9 year old girl was saying that “she wished she was dead and that she didn’t want to be here”. The letter of refusal from CAMHS stated, “She does not appear to have a moderate to severe mental health illness and therefore we will not be accepting this referral. It is common for children with disabilities to have meltdowns and say they do not want to be here.” The refusal letter was sent from CAMHS having never met the 9 year old.

I think that is quite shocking as well. There are many similar examples too. Ms Ní Ghiolla Mhairtín might just explain to us how traumatic that is and what changes the organisation would like to see in this area. I ask this in the context where we have GPs, very clearly concerned about a child, submitting referrals and CAMHS is simply sending letters back not accepting those referrals. That could possibly be for medical reasons, and could be coming from clinicians as well, but sometimes the response might be because of resource issues. I will give Ms Ní Ghiolla Mhairtín time to give her own perspective on some of the responses received from those surveys and her view of how that impacts parents and children. I will, therefore, give much of the time I have left to the witnesses to respond.