Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I outlined last Wednesday, youth mental health, including child and adolescent mental health, is of critical importance. In relation to CAMHS, budget 2022 will provide for the establishment of two new CAMHS tele hubs and a dedicated €6 million is available to expand the capacity of community mental health teams nationally, with a particular emphasis on CAMHS. This includes 45 CAMHS staff, building on funding for 29 additional CAMHS staff provided in 2021 on top of a total of more than 400 new posts between 2012 and 2019. I am pleased to say the HSE completed recruitment of 53 clinical positions within CAMHS in 2021. Some 93% of consultant psychiatrists within CAMHS are filled. We have 80 whole-time equivalents in place and there is an outstanding deficit of five whole-time equivalents, including the post in Kerry.

One of my particular priorities as Minister of State has been to deal with the issue of eating disorders. Contrary to what has been said about nothing being done, a lot is being done. A total investment of €6.85 million to progress the national clinical programme on eating disorders has been made, including €3.94 million in 2021 to complete the three existing teams and three new teams, which are nearing completion. One of these is a CAMHS team. Funding allocated in 2022 will provide an additional four specialist eating disorder teams, with one of these again being dedicated for CAMHS. This will bring the total number of specialist eating disorder teams to ten and I am firmly committed to continuing to develop these services further beyond 2022.

An additional €10 million will be provided this year for initiatives aimed at increasing mental health supports in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular, for children, young people and students. A further once-off €10 million for mental health will be invested to improve the experiences of individuals, including children and young people accessing specialist mental health services, in addition to community and voluntary mental supports. As part of this fund, Mental Health Ireland will distribute a total of €1 million among smaller local groups providing vital mental health supports in communities nationwide. This grant scheme was launched yesterday and I encourage any organisation with a project or proposal that meets the criteria to submit an application. The €10 million allocation has also provided for the launch today of talking therapy sessions on a no-cost basis to individuals impacted by the pandemic.

NGO partner MyMind will provide up to 16,500 counselling and psychotherapy sessions, in more than 15 languages, through a €1 million dedicated fund. The delivery of these supports is a continuation of an initiative that commenced in 2020 and was funded from the Sláintecare integration fund. As part of this project, MyMind delivered approximately 22,000 hours of counselling and psychotherapy sessions to date.

We have also expanded our digital mental health services for children and young people through the 50808 crisis text service, SpunOut, SilverCloud, Turn2Me and the national roll-out of . There are now 14 Jigsaw sites nationally that complement its digital services.

I acknowledge that we have significant challenges in our mental health services. The south Kerry CAMHS report is unflinching in setting out those challenges. While we have made much progress, I am fully committed to continuing to drive the necessary reforms across our mental health system in line with Sharing the Vision. This will be complemented by the significant work under way to overhaul our mental health legislation, which ultimately will enhance the rights and protections of people using our specialist services, including children and young people.

See this speech in context