Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Browne for sharing his time. I will focus on a major issue with children's mental health and disability teams in Galway. While the figures seem to indicate that CHO2 is brilliant, those figures are distorted. They relate to the intellectual services and the disability services within those. Last April, a meeting was held in Merlin Park to deal with children who were primarily diagnosed with autism, but who are down under the section to do with CAMHS. Some 200 parents attended along with the Galway Autism Partnership, GAP. Every parent in that room was promised that they would be receiving a letter because they were transitioning them away from CAMHS, just as the Minister of State said in his introduction and they were putting them on the right pathway for the intervention.

That does not mean to say that all the children might not have needed some formal level of intervention with CAMHS, but a pathway was being put in place. Regrettably the assessments have only started in the past couple of weeks. Not all of those parents have received a letter to date which is very unfortunate because some people in that room had been waiting for a letter for more than two years. These are parents with children in fourth, fifth or sixth class. They were concerned about them going into first year and what provisions would be put in place for them in the secondary school. However, nearly 12 months later, that letter has not been released, which is very unfortunate.

I see that there is nothing on a six, nine or 12 month waiting list but I know that is not the case and does not reflect the situation on the ground. Before I came in here to speak on this issue, I rang the Galway Autism Partnership group and was told that the assessments are just starting but that they have been outsourced. Parents are not confident at the moment because they are not getting the letters. The group also bemoaned the fact that children with intellectual disabilities are at a disadvantage vis-à-vischildren with physical disabilities and that is not right.

As the Minister of State knows, early intervention is key here but that is not what is happening. Children are waiting far too long for the necessary intervention. Intervention should not wait until the critical stage and should be provided through CAMHS. It should be provided earlier through the primary care sector. We must provide more support for primary care services. The Minister of State made reference to e-care and we must do far more to bring primary care practitioners on board. Many primary care units are not capable of providing the intervention that is required. The Minister of State spoke at a meeting of the mental health committee about virtual consultations at primary care centres. That would be a great way to provide relief to families and children but it must be rolled out across the country. It has not reached the west as far as I know, but if it has, I ask the Minister of State to tell me what level it is at because I would positively promote it. Schools should also be told about that service if it is available, but to my knowledge it is not. At this moment in time, as far as parents and the wider community are aware, the only way to get an assessment and support is through CAMHS. We know that the service is short staffed and that there are enormous problems at all levels in terms of providing support.

There is a severe lack of mental health beds for children in Galway. Young children are ending up on adult wards which is totally unacceptable. Dr. Niall Muldoon appeared before the mental health committee and spoke passionately about children's experience of being on adult psychiatric wards. It is shocking to think that we would do that to children. Obviously, they had some problems on admission but they came out with even more problems. Facilities in the new children's hospital are expected to be brilliant but in the meantime we must ring-fence more mental health beds for children around the country. The CAMHS inpatient beds in Galway are for children in 11 counties. We must ring fence more beds.

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