Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chance to speak on this issue. I thank the Mental Health Commission and all those who work in the extremely difficult area of mental health and especially in youth mental health, including in my area, the Dublin 15 suicide awareness group Genesis Psychotherapy and Family Therapy Service CLG, Jigsaw and all the private counsellors and therapists who provide support to young people and who hold those young people at risk who should be in services such as CAMHS. To be honest, the publication of this damning interim report on CAMHS has not shocked anyone who has any knowledge of the system young people have been trying to access for many years. Those of us who have worked with young people will have experience of the significant challenges faced in trying to access mental health support services for children and young people in CAMHS. The report describes a situation of children who should have had follow up appointments including to review prescriptions and to monitor medication, waiting for an appointment for up to two years in some cases. It is absolutely appalling.

In CHO 9, which covers my area of Dublin West, 153 people are waiting up to six months, 74 young people are waiting six months to a year and ten children are waiting over 52 weeks, and that is the lower end of the scale. If one looks at the reports from all of the CHOs, CHO 9 is operating the best - if you could describe it as that - yet those numbers should shock anyone and appal everyone.

Across the State, there are more than 4,043 children on CAMHS waiting lists. Statistics from Mental Health Reform state that 741 children with mental health difficulties attended emergency departments from January to November 2022. They were in such dire need due to their mental health state that they attended the emergency department of a hospital. People who attend an emergency department because of their mental health know that the services do not exist there and that they will be left sitting for up to 24 hours to be told there will be an appointment for them within four to six weeks. They are in such a state of distress that they attend hospital and they are told "Sorry. There are no services here. You will have to go off and, in a couple of weeks' time, we will have an appointment for you."

The HSE audit of CAMHS, including both the prescribing audit and the compliance with CAMHS operational guidelines audit, were promised to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022. They still have not been published, as per the HSE's statement on 23 January. Despite the lack of availability of public CAMHS beds, the HSE does not have any memorandum of understanding agreements in place with private providers for the provision of private mental health beds for children and adolescents attending CAMHS. It is failure after failure in pretty much every area. This is no surprise to anybody.

Approximately half of the budget, some €11.4 million of the €24 million, allocated to mental health services in budget 2022 for the development of new services was not spent. A survey by the Psychiatric Nurses Association revealed the existence of over 700 mental health nursing vacancies in mental health services throughout the country. I know from speaking to and working with people who work in the HSE, in mental health services and in Tusla that some places are too stressful and much too difficult for them to work in and they burn out very quickly. The support services are not in place for the workers and that must be addressed. Otherwise, we are not going to hit any of the targets being set.

It is clear that CAMHS is not working and that we must put in place an urgent strategy to tackle the crisis. It is time to hold the Government to account as well. Every child and young person who cannot access a service in an appropriate timeline means the Government has failed them. I refer to those who are responsible for providing mental health services for children and young people in distress. If they cannot access that service in a timely fashion, we have failed them and the Government has failed them and this country has failed them, so we must get this right. It is way too important. Children's lives and young people's lives are at risk as we stand here and speak.

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