Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

There is an ongoing crisis in our mental health service for children and young adults. There are 3,900 young people on waiting lists, up 40% in the past year. One would imagine that for the HSE, this would require an urgent response to increase services, but quite incredibly, the HSE has announced a national cut in services, with the closure of almost half the beds in the Linn Dara facility in Cherry Orchard. Linn Dara is a key facility for child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, nationally, and for the greater Dublin area and counties Wicklow, Kildare and Louth, in particular. The HSE has stated these bed closures, a reduction of 11 beds, down from 24 to 13, is a consequence of shortages of qualified staff. The CAMHS unit in Cherry Orchard should have 51 nurses. It only has 24. There is an ongoing problem with recruitment and retention in the health service as a whole. We have heard this from the medical scientists. The Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, has described the bed closures at Linn Dara as a consequence of poor planning by the HSE. The PNA has pointed out that similar closures took place five years ago in 2017, but it seems nothing has been learned since then.

Mental Health Reform, a national coalition of groups concerned with mental health issues and services, has called for the reinstatement of a national director on mental health to report directly to Mr. Paul Reid, the CEO of the HSE. It has stated this post is essential to ensure proper oversight and leadership in the improvement of mental health services nationally.

In 2006, A Vision for Change was adopted as a Government policy to transform these services. A Vision for Change called for 100 beds to be available. We now have just 56 beds nationally following the closure of the Cherry Orchard facility. Mental Health Reform has also pointed out these reductions in beds could mean that children may end up being admitted to adult mental health treatment units, which would be in contravention of their human rights. The reductions will mean young people will face increasing difficulties in accessing care in a situation where long delays can have a devastating effect on families and children in need of early intervention.

What has happened makes a mockery of the Sharing the Vision policy, which followed A Vision for Change. There is a need for urgent action. The reduction in beds and overall service at the time of an escalating crisis is simply unacceptable. What action does the Taoiseach propose to take? It is not good enough to say that there is a problem with recruitment and retention. The situation requires urgent action.

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