Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Wallace for raising this important matter and acknowledge the contents of the letter he read, which was very bravely written by a 14 year old. I know the Deputy will understand that I cannot comment on nor do I have information on individual cases. Having reared two children, I now find it very challenging to get my head around the fact that so many young people are familiar with the term "suicidal ideation", never mind taking action. Our society seems to have changed to a significant extent.

Children and adolescents who present with suicidal ideation in Wexford, depending on their presentation or presenting problem, may be referred to a number of services including a school counsellor, teen counselling service in the Ferns Diocesan Youth Service, the HSE child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, in Wexford, the HSE primary care community psychology services, or the HSE self-harm intervention programme.

Child psychology services are delivered by a number of different agencies, including CAMHS, which employs psychologists, primary care psychology services and disability services for children with intellectual disabilities or autism. All referrals for CAMHS services come from a GP to a consultant psychiatrist and the CAMHS team. The team prioritises who is most urgently in need of psychological intervention. Children and adolescents assessed and diagnosed by the team with a mental health disorder, and assessed as needing psychological intervention and at risk of suicide or who are highly distressed, are prioritised.

Wexford mental health services have advised that the CAMHS psychologist relocated in November 2016 but that a replacement psychologist has been appointed for CAMHS. This psychologist will start next week on 27 March. I know the Deputy will welcome this news. Upon commencement in the post, it is intended that the CAMHS psychology waiting list will be triaged and appointments will be offered based on prioritisation of clinical need. In addition, approval has been granted to recruit a staff grade psychologist post in CAMHS and the process for recruitment is under way.

Psychology services in Wexford are delivered through primary care and disability services across the catchment area of Wexford. Children or young people are usually referred to primary care psychology services for a number of behavioural or emotional concerns. It is more common for young people to raise suicidai ideation as a concern during their assessment or intervention rather than it being a reason for referral to primary care psychology unless a previous assessment has been completed, for example, by CAMHS.

When a young person discusses suicidal ideation within an assessment and-or intervention, he or she receives a thorough psychological assessment and intervention is offered to a high standard. In recent years a number of factors have impacted on waiting times in psychology services. These include population growth in the Wexford area, significantly increased service demands and more complex demands and, as referred to earlier, staffing challenges. As with many other areas throughout the country, there are staffing challenges within Wexford psychology services, including maternity leave, sick leave and reduced working hours, which are impacting on waiting times. Unfortunately, there is also an overall national shortage of psychologists at this time which has contributed to increasing waiting times both locally and nationally.

The HSE tells me that it continues to endeavour to address such issues that arise through a number of measures. These include continuing to actively fill approved posts, monitoring waiting lists in line with available resources and prioritisation criteria and reconfiguring children’s disability services into geographicaIly-based early-intervention and school-aged teams as part of the national progressing disability services for children and young people programme, which will ensure a more equitable delivery of services.

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