Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Some of our most vulnerable young people in child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, are being thrown off a cliff when they reach the age of 18. I have a letter in front of me from a mother who is terrified for her daughter, who was admitted in May to an adolescent mental health facility for six weeks of residential treatment but who is being thrown out before it is complete because her 18th birthday falls before the completion date. She is now absolutely terrified of going into an adult unit, where, as the Minister knows, there is no upper age limit. She is scared and has a history of self-harm. Her life is in danger. The mother says she is fighting for her child's life. She has been badly let down over the years by CAMHS and so on, so I am asking for urgent intervention in this case. I will not mention the name here. Something has to be done so that people, when they reach 18, will not be thrown over a cliff in child and mental health services.

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