Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask about child mental health services, which have been raised by Deputy Howlin. I think the Taoiseach needs to say something about this serious matter. Child psychiatrists are resigning because they believe child psychiatric services are "untenable and unsafe". This problem is not isolated to Wexford. I will not go into individual cases. I am aware of other areas where exactly the same thing is happening. The numbers of child psychiatrists and mental health teams are not adequate. There are not enough staff, resources and primary care services. Too many people are being referred to the psychiatrists. Essentially, they are under pressure to prescribe drugs. If they do not want to do that because their clinical judgment is that they should not do so, they get into trouble with managers who just want to tick boxes. That is what is going on. The Taoiseach needs to say that child psychiatrists and specialists in this area should act on their clinical judgment and should do what they believe is best in their clinical judgment. Managers should not be forcing them to do things they do not consider right to do. It is very important to send out that message. If we are going to ensure these services are safe, tenable and of the standard necessary to do what they are supposed to do for young and vulnerable people, we need to ensure primary care services and mental health teams are properly resourced.

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