Dr. Aileen Murtagh:

What we hear consistently when we pick up the phone to triage referrals when we receive a referral from the HSE is that a young person has been referred to the public inpatient system and there is no bed availability. Sometimes we might have waited for two or three weeks so at that point it will decide to refer to the independent sector. We do not tend to get many referrals of young people in adult psychiatric wards. We have had quite a number of young people who have been in medical beds, generally in paediatric wards, which are not suitable places either for young people. They are not subject to the same restrictions that were mentioned, like being confined to a room, but we had one young person who was admitted after six weeks in Crumlin hospital. They are not geared up to meet the needs of these young people. Their sleep will have been very poor for six weeks because of the screaming babies or medical emergencies. Sleep is very important in terms of mental health. There is also no access to therapeutic programmes. In units like ours there is a group psychotherapeutic programme running Monday to Friday. Other than school, the young people have had very little to do. In essence they are in a medical bed although they do not have a medical need. They may have had initial medical needs but those needs are no longer a live issue but as a result of the level of risk, they remain in a medical bed until a bed becomes available in a psychiatric unit.