Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I bring to the attention of the Government the serious crisis in child and adolescent mental health services in the Louth-Meath area. There is presently no out-of-hours service liaison for these children and adolescents. There are no plans or resources to develop such a service. There is no approved centre for child and adolescent mental health services either. A farcical situation was brought to my attention yesterday whereby a clinical psychologist, who studied for 11 years and was trained by the HSE at a cost of €140,000, has been told that his primary care psychology services job in County Louth is gone and has been indefinitely postponed. He is now applying for social welfare. The Government must address the issue of CAMHS and exclude psychologists from this blanket ban, which is entirely unacceptable.

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