Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Buckley for raising this important issue. I know they are genuinely interested in mental health services. The policy of the HSE, as reflected in its annual service plans, is to provide age-appropriate mental health services to people under the age of 18. In view of the significant additional funding that has been provided over recent years, I reiterate this Government’s commitment to the development of all aspects of mental health, including that relating to young people. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is continuing to make the case for further resources annually, in line with evolving demands and in accordance with the commitments set out in A Programme for a Partnership Government.

The HSE service plan for 2018 commits to further developing child and adolescent mental health services, known as CAMHS. This is happening against a background where the demand for CAMHS increased by 26% between 2012 and 2017. Various youth mental health initiatives other than the specialist CAMHS service are also being progressed. We have 69 CAMHS teams and three paediatric liaison teams supported by approximately 75 CAMHS beds nationally. Further beds are planned to come on stream as quickly as possible. The Government has funded an additional 140 psychiatric nurse undergraduates places each year to help to improve the planning and delivery of services over the coming years.

The issue of staff recruitment and retention, particularly in the sphere of CAMHS, is a key difficulty that is being addressed on a steady basis by the HSE. These are two key issues in this debate. The recent appointment by the HSE of 114 assistant psychologists and 20 psychologists will help to develop counselling services in primary care. It is anticipated that these posts will deal with less complex child and adolescent cases, thereby reducing the demand on CAMHS. The Minister of State recently approved ten new posts for advance nurse practitioners that will be specifically directed to the CAMHS service nationally. These new practitioners will play a key role in delivering better service co-ordination where local service pressures are greatest.

The HSE Linn Dara CAMHS service covers a population of approximately 420,000 across County Kildare, west Wicklow and south-west Dublin. There are seven multidisciplinary community CAMHS teams for these areas. The HSE has indicated that a decision was taken by the Linn Dara management team to temporarily suspend its day programme from Friday, 6 July 2018 to maintain essential community and inpatient services. It is expected that the day programme will reopen in September or October. This decision was taken due to psychiatry and allied health professional temporary staffing shortages in the community sectors.

To maintain essential provision of services, psychiatry and multidisciplinary staff have been reassigned from the adolescent day programme to maintain other key community-based Linn Dara services and manage their overall capacity at this time. The small number of young people who were scheduled to attend the adolescent day programme will continue to attend their existing community CAMHS teams and to receive appropriate individual and therapeutic programmes. The HSE has a statutory responsibility to ensure safe, adequate and sufficient service provision to all areas of the CAMHS service. The Linn Dara inpatient unit will remain fully operational as normal, with 22 beds and functioning community teams available. I assure the Deputies that the Minister of State will keep this matter under close review. All efforts will continue to be made by the HSE to address the ongoing service difficulties at Linn Dara.

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