Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the issue I highlighted last week about children and their mental health, it is important that the House take a moment to reflect on last night's RTE programme, "RTE Investigates: Living on the List". It illustrated the physical and emotional burden on sufferers waiting for long periods for life-altering operations and the impact of the waiting periods on their families and friends as they watched them suffer. It also documented how, as time passed, the condition of patients worsened. The long-term impact can be far-reaching. One of the most disturbing findings of the investigation was that there were two unpublished waiting lists for health treatment in Ireland. I second the words of the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, when he stated this was wrong and something over which the Government could not stand. He also added that he was ashamed. What shames me as a Senator is that there are very sick children on waiting lists for mental health treatment, inlcuding for early onset psychosis, anorexia, bulimia, self-harm and addiction. They are equally vulnerable, but not once was the waiting list of these children mentioned last night. What shames me even more is that not only did they not get a look in last night, or this morning when the Government spoke about the need for extra beds and staff in the health service, but there was no mention that last year in Ireland 17,794 children had been referred to the CAMHS and that 5,379 children had not been dealt with at all. The waiting lists for mental health treatment are extremely serious and equally as critical as the devastating interviews we saw last night. Each month, approximately 2,500 children await assessments. Almost half of these children will not be seen during the first year, while some of them will not be seen after a year. What strikes me as bizarre is that the national service plan published in December 2016 warned us that the number of children on the waiting list would increase in the coming 12 months. Why are mental health sufferers second-class citizens? Why is the same urgency not given to dealing with their situation? It appears that this and previous Governments have operated a two-tier system of health care which ignores and neglects children and adolescents suffering from a mental health illness. In the 1990s the then Government got rid of the asylum. We opened up the doors of our Victorian hospitals and integrated those with mental health issues into society. I am beginning to wonder whether this institutional deconstruction had any effect on our attitudes and ideas about mental health services. Is anyone becoming a little exhausted with the talk about reform and the absence of a discussion on delivery? Is it not a source of outrage that the administration is not giving the public a full and frank image of waiting lists? Is it not a source of disappointment that once again mental health service waiting lists are completely ignored?