Dr. Brendan Doody:

To provide a specialist mental health service, a multidisciplinary team with a full range of skills is needed. Such a team is led by a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with the necessary skills and training. Children who present will require a proper and full assessment of their needs and then it is part of the care planning to identify how those needs are best met. That may require a number of inputs from different members of the team and a number of therapies. It is not only about having the resources but about having the skills available on teams. That is one point. Medication may be a part of that but it would never be the sole intervention.

The other point my colleagues have made is that it is important for specialist services that services for primary care at other levels are available too in order that children whose needs could be met in primary care are not being referred to specialist mental health services. The Deputy made the point that often, an earlier and more timely intervention can have the effect of the problem not developing such that children require later referral to a specialist mental health service. That holistic approach has to be taken, rather than just looking at the importance of resourcing and having those skills and specialist mental health teams. We must also ensure that resources are available at primary care level to allow timely support and access. A whole-of-system approach has to be taken.