Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

More than 700 children with mental health difficulties are on a waiting list for specialist treatment services in the Cork and Kerry region, including 200 who are waiting more than a year. Delays in accessing CAMHS worsened recently in Cork North Lee, which closed to new referrals last month following the departure of a consultant psychiatrist. The HSE said referral rates among under 18s in the Cork-Kerry area have risen by 26% since 2011, including a 10% increase between January and June this year versus the same period in 2017. As of March this year, 2,691 children and young adults were waiting for the HSE to provide them with an appointment. The HSE mental health services disclosed that 1,369 were waiting for up to three months, 470 up to six months, 241 up to nine months, 225 up to 12 months, a staggering 178 up to 15 months and 80 up to and over 18 months. It goes on and on.

We all know that CAMHS staffing is only at 56%. I do not mean to be disrespectful but we are probably going to get a lot of generic answers on this and we are well aware of it. Cork, Kerry, Wexford and Tipperary services are understaffed. We now have problems in Waterford and Sligo. I can tell the Minister of State how bad it is within 16 seconds. A 13 year old was in CAMHS but somebody in his or her wisdom decided that she may not have Asperger's, so she was discharged from CAMHS. She needed an assessment which still has not happened, and that child is doing her leaving certificate this year.

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