Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my party colleague Deputy Ward on bringing forward the Bill and welcome all the families and parents in the Gallery for the debate.

I come from County Cavan which, unfortunately, has a very high suicide rate. Cavan is among three counties that have double the national average of suicides and many of them, unfortunately, are adolescents who had engaged with CAMHS. According to parents, there are umpteen problems with CAMHS and how CAMHS teams work. Parents are regularly waiting months for an initial appointment when their child or young person is referred to CAMHS. There is an over-dependence on medication in the CAMHS teams and often patients are not monitored or not monitored sufficiently. The use of alternatives such as counselling and play therapy does not seem to be considered. There is no out-of-hours service and a huge turnover of staff. Psychiatrists are regularly on sick leave and are replaced by locums, which means that young people have to relive their trauma by informing a new person of their issues. They have to introduce themselves to a new person and get used to that person but the next time they come back, they meet somebody different and they have to go through it all again. I have talked to many parents who have actually withdrawn their children from CAMHS because they felt the interactions were so poor and inappropriate that they were causing regression in their young person. Those families are in crisis and have nowhere to turn.

Children with an intellectual disability and neurodiverse children who have a dual diagnosis of mental ill health face an even greater battle because there is such poor collaboration between services. There is a lack of training for health and social care professionals. Autistic children are regularly referred to CAMHS with anxiety or mental health issues but are turned away because the CAMHS teams will not deal with autistic children. This has to stop. There has to be collaboration between the services to ensure that children get access to planned and continued care.

CAMHS is not regulated under the Mental Health Act but this Bill will ensure that children's mental health services are regulated under that Act. The Mental Health Commission can make recommendations on governance and clinical reforms in CAMHS but it does not have the statutory authority to make sure the recommendations are implemented. This Bill will give statutory powers to the Mental Health Commission to oversee and assist the HSE in its implementation of its recommendations. I urge Members to support this Bill.

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