Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The crisis in youth mental health has turned into an emergency under this Government and there is no way the Ministers of State can deny that. Under this Government, the CAMHS waiting list for first-time appointments in CHO 8, which covers my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, has grown from 270 in July 2022 to 695, which is the last available number. The number of young people waiting over a year is 115, the second highest in the State. Behind each and every one of those figures is an actual young person or young child. In 2018, a six-year old was referred to CAMHS but that referral was refused. In 2019, the child was referred to community psychiatry and her parents did the Timid to Tiger programme. In 2019, she was referred again to CAMHS. At this point, she was seven. I am speaking here from first-hand experience because I am speaking about one of my own children. In 2020, while I stood in Dunnes Stores in the period between the general election and the Dáil's first sitting, I got a phone call from the community psychologist to tell me that my daughter's referral had landed back on her desk and there was nothing she could do except send it back to my GP. Finally, after a third referral, she was seen in 2022, having been on the list for around three months. These figures go nowhere near explaining the sheer scale of this issue in our communities. Our children are suffering. My child certainly suffered. She is doing very well today, unlike many others who are still suffering, and that is wrong. The Government has the opportunity tonight to do the right thing. Let us regulate CAMHS and make it fit for purpose. Let us make sure that no other child suffers for almost half of his or her life while trying to access a service when there really is no need for that to happen.

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