Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Approximately ten days ago, I received an email from a constituent about her little boy, Patrick. Patrick is ten years old and he first engaged with the HSE services more than four years ago. The family feel they have been let down for all that time. In February of last year he was diagnosed with ADHD. At the time, CAMHS suggested an autism assessment. In June he was sent for an urgent assessment to the autism services in Sligo-Leitrim. He has waited since then. The email states:

[W]e would like to ask you to get involved in a situation that is seriously affecting our family. A situation that, if left unchecked, has the potential to end in tragedy.

I have forwarded on to you a complaint that we made to the HSE today. We feel the time has come for the services concerned to stop playing tennis with our lives. Passing the buck continuously between each other achieves no resolution. We all know that neither CAMHS nor Autism Services has the right person in post at present. So they need to fund a service outside of Leitrim to support our little boy.

We feel that if this was the child of any member of government then the case would have been resolved in 7 days, not 7 months and we demand that our children be given the respect and support that is fair.

This family is in absolute despair. That lady has telephoned and emailed me about the situation several times in the past week. I have contacted the services in Sligo-Leitrim. Those services just do not have the necessary person in place. The last thing we heard from them is that Dr. Mark O'Callaghan, the principal clinical psychologist, has suggested that the little boy will be referred to Dr. Yvonne Kelly. There is already waiting list of two months at a minimum to see Dr. Kelly. What are these families going to do? The Minister of State indicated that there are 70 CAMHS teams. How many of those are fully staffed? As far as I can see, none of them are. All of them probably have 50% of the required staffing.

These are serious situations. If that child was at home with a broken leg, would he be left for seven months? No, he would not. He could not be. We need to take the situation as seriously as that. While I absolutely appreciate that the Minister of State is doing everything he can, these families are in a situation of crisis. That mother has written to the HSE. She has said that on 1 February she is going to go public. I spoke to her before I came into the Chamber. She told me to name her and her child. I am not going to do that now. It is time for the Government to realise that we have a crisis in CAMHS and autism services. That is probably true of all parts of the country, but I am particularly interested in the north west. Wherever the money and expertise has to come from, I call on the Minister of State to put it in place now and save these children's lives.

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