Dr. Kieran Moore:

I thank Deputy Anne Rabbitte for asking what is a really important question. I am a paediatric or child and adolescent psychiatrist. One can look at the research in terms of the short and long-term effects, but the most important point is that it is unfair when a child is admitted to an adult unit. Despite the absolute best efforts of nurses, doctors and other staff in adult units, one ends up having a child in a room on his or her own, with nothing else ongoing in terms of the provision of treatment. There is no education and no access to the normal rights of a child. In paediatric hospitals parents are not just allowed but actively asked and encouraged to be with their children. That does not happen in psychiatry units, even those which have child and adolescent beds. It is devastating. I see children all of the time in adult psychiaty hospitals who I had to admit. One goes to talk to them and they are distressed because they do not understand the noises they are hearing from the people outside. There are people in them who are 70 or 80 years old and it is wrong.

To answer Deputy Anne Rabbitte's question and go back to what Senator Gabrielle McFadden spoke about, having inpatient units 200 or 300 km away does not make sense. We should be treating people, particularly children, at home. We should be linked with schools and the treatment teams in place. If we need a bed, we should have access to one in the local paediatric hospital for a number of nights, rather than having to wait for a bed a long distance away or put children in adult psychiatry hospitals which, in fairness, are already full with adult patients. My expert opinion is that, potentially and often, it is devastating for a child.