Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

CAMHS and other mental health services in this State are so woefully underfunded that what happened in south Kerry should come as a shock to no-one. We spend 6% of our health budget on mental health. That is half the level recommended by the WHO. This needs to be increased as a matter of urgency. There are currently more than 3,000 young people awaiting appointments in a CAMHS psychiatry service. There are over 9,500 young people on a waiting list for child primary care psychology. Over 3,982 of these young people have been waiting for over a year.

In my area of Louth and Meath, the CAMHS struggles to adequately staff itself. It is difficult to recruit staff, like occupational therapists for example, because the terms offered in other areas like primary care are often better so people choose not to work in mental health services. In Louth and Meath the service only has access to inpatient beds and does not have access to day beds at all. Accessing the inpatient beds has proved increasingly difficult. We also need to provide more beds for young people with eating disorders. There has been a significant increase in cases since Covid with no plan or response to that to date.

The Government should listen to what we are calling for in the motion. It is practical measures to protect our children by fixing children's mental health services. We need to reappoint a national director of mental health in the HSE. We must scrap the appalling practice of placing children in adult facilities and ensure we have enough beds and enough resources to appropriately treat children. We also need to drastically increase mental health funding across the board by a minimum of at least 10%, as agreed under Sláintecare. We cannot have more cases of people becoming severely unwell and even dying because they cannot access services. Our children cannot continue to be treated like this. It is inhumane, unfair and it must stop. I could have told the Minister of State stories from my constituency of young children and young adults who were either turned away when they sought help or had no follow-up and no backup and sadly took their lives in the most horrific of circumstances. That has to stop. The Minster of State needs to get a grip because the HSE is such a mess. It is an absolute mess. It will never get its act together.

For the sake of our children, the Minister of State needs to get a handle on this and put whatever direction and insistence is needed in place. She needs to do it now to protect our children. This situation is not good enough.

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