Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I brought the Taoiseach's attention a study by Ms Kathleen Ryan in Trinity College Dublin into our child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. I referred to how thousands of children and young people are on waiting lists to access psychiatrists and psychologists, as well as how many professionals in the service were finding it challenging, frustrating and disillusioning, that many brilliant people are leaving the service and how there is a collective feeling of frustration among many of those working in CAMHS. The Taoiseach's response was complacent and revealed a certain lack of appreciation of the crisis in our mental health services across the board.

There has been a 10% increase in the number of children waiting to access CAMHS, with more than 2,500 children waiting. There are 350 vulnerable young people waiting longer than 12 months for an appointment which is shameful given their vulnerability. Outside CAMHS, more than 6,500 children were waiting for a primary care appointment in psychology in January 2018 with 1,700 waiting for a psychology appointment for more than a year.

Timely intervention is essential when dealing with vulnerable young people in such circumstances. This is compounded by the 20% increase in the number of children admitted to adult wards. Some 81 vulnerable young people last year spent more than 630 days in adult wards, which is a traumatic experience. The Ombudsman for Children, Dr. Niall Muldoon, recently made a valuable presentation to the Joint Committee on Future of Mental Health Care, outlining young people's experiences of our mental health services. He consulted 25 young people who told of their experiences. He said:

Many of the young people concerned spoke about the length of time it took to access CAMHS and the stark differences in the availability and consistency of the service throughout the country. They described these delays and inconsistencies as being very difficult. They also referenced the distance between the inpatient units and their homes.

He also referred to one young person who spoke of being placed in an adult psychiatric ward which was "an experience he described as traumatic".

When one adds the problems in recruitment to mental health services, there are real issues. Some 31% of psychiatry posts are either vacant or filled only temporarily and there are 500 vacancies in psychiatric nursing. There are concerns for our mental health services. Does the Taoiseach accept that there are major issues in mental health services particularly in access to CAMHS, that many young people are experiencing unacceptable delays in accessing these services and that there are major recruitment and retention issues for professional posts? Will he consider expanding the National Treatment Purchase Fund to address gaps in our mental health services?

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