Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 December 2023

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth

Access to CAMHS for Individuals with Dual Diagnosis: Discussion

Dr. Gerry McCarney:

A couple of things have been happening simultaneously. The national clinical programme is under mental health. That was developing a dual diagnosis programme. There have been previous clinical programmes. The programme on early onset psychosis is one that comes to mind while the programme on eating disorders is another. The programme for dual diagnosis has been under development for the last few years. That comes under mental health in association with the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. That was agreed this year. There is an adult service part but there is also a part for under-18s. The team I am part of was identified as the pilot. This team and the YoDA team are the two existing teams at tier 3 level. We will work in unison to try to develop that and the plan is to have two further teams, in Cork and Galway.

Halfway through the lifetime of the drug and alcohol strategy, there was an interim review. The national oversight committee was reconstituted and it was broken up into strategic implementation groups to look at various aspects of the strategy. I was tasked with chairing the group dealing with the part relating to young people and prevention. We identified eight action points. The fifth related to the development of a national service for under-18s. This dovetails very well with the national clinical programme. The main difference between the two is that the national clinical programme is about dual diagnosis while the under-18s service is about dual diagnosis and those using substances who do not have an illness.

It is both. That is what is happening in reality. What was the last part of the question?