Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I was reading some of the online debate about the situation with CAMHS in south Kerry. One comment struck me as if I had been punched on the nose. The person said that if anybody had listened to the teenagers subjected to CAMHS, this would have been discovered years ago. There was significant harm to 46 children. The harm included putting on a lot of weight, increased blood pressure, the production of breast milk and sleepiness during the day. According to the report there were unreliable diagnoses, inappropriate prescriptions, poor monitoring of treatment and poor monitoring of potential adverse effects. According to reports, a staff member reported having heard that the person in question was running a private treatment service from the person's home, sometimes seeing people privately up to midnight, and was also working in a private clinic in another country. The report said that the doctor worked extra hours and was observed to be very tired at work, but this issue was not addressed. If that is true, it shows the madness of a two-tier health system where doctors try to hold down a job in the public health service and a job or jobs in the private sector at the same time.

Second, there were clearly major issues with supervision and oversight. The review states that no system was used to check the prescribing of medication or the quality of service. Clearly, a far more radical review and change are necessary. I want to highlight that the review recommended that children and their families should be invited to be part of the governance structure of CAMHS. I strongly support that recommendation.

Mental health services have been described as the Cinderella of the health services with 6% of the public spend, compared to more than double that in some EU countries. We have to double the spend immediately in mental health services and in youth mental health services. It is unacceptable that there were 3,357 young people waiting to access CAMHS last November, with 221 waiting for a year and more. It is not all about finance, although finance is a huge part of it. The spend must be doubled immediately.

See this speech in context