Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

A working group on child and adolescent psychiatry was established by the Minister for Health and Children in June 2000 to make recommendations on how child and adolescent psychiatric services should be developed in the short, medium and long term to meet identified needs.

In its first report, the working group recommended the enhancement and expansion of the overall child and adolescent psychiatric services as the most effective means of providing the required service for children with mental illness. The group found that the internationally acknowledged best practice for the provision of child and adolescent psychiatric services is through the multidisciplinary team and the funding of this area has been a priority for my Department in recent years. Since 1997, additional funding of almost €19 million has been provided to allow for the appointment of additional consultants in child and adolescent psychiatry, the enhancement of existing consultant-led multidisciplinary teams and the establishment of further teams. This has resulted in the funding of a further 19 child and adolescent consultant psychiatrists. Nationally, 52 such psychiatrists are in our complement.

The first report of the working group on child and adolescent psychiatry also recommended that a total of seven child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric units for children ranging from six to 16 years should be developed throughout the country. Project teams have been established to develop child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric units in Cork, Limerick, Galway and the Health Service Executive eastern regional area at St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview. Approval to tender for design teams for the units in Cork, Limerick and Galway was given by my Department recently. Inpatient services for children and adolescents are provided at Warrenstown House, Dublin, and at St. Anne's in Galway.

The Health Act 2004 provided for the Health Service Executive which was established on 1 January 2005. Under the Act, the executive has the responsibility to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. This includes responsibility for the provision of mental health services. An additional €15 million has been made available for the further development of mental health services in 2005, bringing the total spend on mental health to approximately €725 million. A portion of this funding, the details of which are yet to be finalised, will be allocated to child and adolescent mental health services.

The future direction and delivery of all aspects of our mental health services, including child and adolescent psychiatry, will be considered in the context of the work of the expert group on mental health policy, which is due to report this year.

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