Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Colm Burke for allowing me to contribute. I know we are pressed for time, having started 20 minutes late. Much of what I wanted to discuss has been raised by my colleagues, so I will not deal with that. I will concentrate yet again on an area in which the Minister of State knows I have a major interest, namely, the mental health of children with a disability. I have requested debates on that topic on several occasions since becoming a Member of the House and I do not believe there has been a debate on mental health in which I have not raised it.

In March 2014, I raised an issue that had reached a crisis point where a family was refused help by CAMHS and the paediatric services. When they visited their general practitioner, the only option given was sedation. There was no child psychiatrist for the Louth-Meath area. As of today, we still do not have a child psychiatrist in that area. The recruitment process is ongoing.

This is an issue I have raised with the Minister of State and members of staff but it is still an issue. I went to see the director of mental health services and was again told it is a case of recruitment, which other people raised earlier, but where should children between the ages of 16 and 18 go when there is no local child psychiatrist? They do not fall under the CAMHS remit or the paediatric services. Where should they go? It is now over a year later and I am still asking the same questions.

I have been told that funding for the child psychiatrist is available. As the child psychiatrist is not in place, can that funding be allocated to parents who have paid more than €700 in many cases for private assessments? Would it be possible to provide for that? I welcome members of ServiceSource who are in the Visitors Gallery. It provides an excellent alternative in terms of recruitment facilities and it reports, as do Bluebird Care and other agencies, that it has the staff.Can we access that a bit better or can we engage more with them and listen to their models, so that we can improve the situation? Others have raised the issue of children in adult units. Again, 89 were admitted last year. In my maiden speech in the Seanad four years ago, it was something I was very vocal about and about which I felt very strongly. Four years on, I appreciate the work the Minister of State is doing, but it is another area we need to look at. Some 400 people are on a waiting list for mental health services. That is 400 too many. We are looking at people who are extremely vulnerable and, as a result, families that are extremely vulnerable. People are on waiting lists for more than a year. It is not acceptable. I spoke with someone yesterday who was on a waiting list for a year and a half and the only options they were given were sedation or to wait and see. That family has lived in trepidation, waiting for an appointment, which, they are told, will be 18 months down the line. It affects the whole family.