Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. This is an opportune time to review the entire CAMHS system from top to bottom. I first note that our CAMHS team in Wexford does a remarkable job. It has no control over the deficits in staffing levels and what I am going to say is by no means a criticism of it. In fact, we have excellent staff; we simply do not have enough of them. We are understaffed, under-resourced and under pressure. County Wexford is still without a paediatric dietician, which I have brought up numerous times on the floor of this House. The incidence of anorexia in our children and adolescents is growing. It is a dreadful scenario for families to endure and watch their children deplete their bodies of food. They watch their children die of starvation, in effect, unable to access the care that is required to cure them of anorexia. It is curable but it needs intervention. The system simply does not work if the required staff are not available. A dietician is the support that is required for CAMHS in Wexford - not 0.5 of one but a full whole-time equivalent dietician.

The Luas, Dublin Bus or Irish Rail would be in chaos every morning if we did not have enough drivers. A schoolroom would struggle to function if it did not have enough teachers and our ambulance service would fail if we did not have enough crew members. Yet when we do not have the right staffing levels in CAMHS it does not hit the headlines like it would for these services. My discussions with GPs indicate that they are referring children to CAMHS and some are not deemed in need of urgent attention. That means that children and adolescents are going untreated, often resulting in them ending up in accident and emergency after attempting to take their own lives. Surely if a GP refers a child or adolescent they deem in urgent need of mental health care, they should receive that attention.

As has been noted many times tonight, in 2019 the staffing levels in the mental health services showed a deficit of 2,600 staff. That was 2,600 fewer staff than recommended in A Vision for Change. We need to deliver a service that is fit for purpose and at the moment we just do not have that. There are too many anomalies, too many people missing off the team and a lack of consultants. There is no dietician or in-house bed unit in Wexford, no beds in Waterford for minors and no 24-hour service in Wexford. It took a long time to recruit a badly-needed child psychologist for the service in Wexford and children and their families were exposed for years because of that.

What I had hoped to hear is that there is a willingness to examine, from top to bottom, all relevant issues surrounding the services and how they can be improved. The Minister of State has said that. I know that she, like me, is passionate about delivering mental health services that improve our children's lives and give them a future. I feel sorry for her this evening because her line Minister is in Dubai with the Secretary General of the Department of Health, both of whom should be here responding to what has gone wrong. The head of the HSE is making excuses on radio and excuses is what they are. There has to be accountability. We have reports from stakeholders who know about these things, such as Mental Health Reform, but the recommendations that have been made over the years have never been implemented because the HSE knows best. We now see the result of that and it most certainly is not what I would call best practice.

It is also not good enough that the Minister of State, as a new Minister who has no real fault in this, is taking the fall. I ask that she assert herself and not allow that to happen. There has to be accountability for those who are paid to take it. Being in Dubai when we are in the throes of a very serious mental health crisis is not what I would call either accountability or responsibility. I am very disappointed that that is the level of seriousness shown by our senior Minister in the Department of Health and his Secretary General. It is very disappointing.

Given the day that is in it, I want to mention the leaving certificate. The decision by Cabinet today has brought to bear very serious mental health pressures on at least 70,000 students. We will debate that further during the week.

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