Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House to talk about this important issue. There is not one of us who was not shocked and horrified by the story of the many children who were failed by the CAMHS system in Kerry. It was absolutely shocking and heartbreaking to think that these children, in trouble with their health and needing support, not only did not get support but that further harm was actually done to them. That is shocking and horrifying. Parents from other parts of the country have contacted me worried that maybe something similar may be going on in their area. It is very important that what happened there does not happen any place else. There must also be a full audit of all the other areas to ensure it is not happening in order that people can have confidence when they go to get help that it will be the best high-quality help available for their children. I know that the Minister of State is committed to that, and that she is acting very promptly in dealing with it. I am also glad that a non-adversarial system of compensation has been established for the families. The last thing they need at this moment is to face into a court battle.

I was happy to hear the Minister of State indicate that a clinical support team will be established in Killarney. At the time, people had said, "Yes, a problem occurred but where do we go from here?" These children are still struggling and perhaps even more so than when they presented. This is very important. It is good that it will be resourced and that everything will be kept on top of it.

On the issue with recruitment and the position that has been open for a number of years, will the Minister of State address whether or not she has looked abroad? We have a lot of medical professionals abroad. Have we actively gone out to the places they are based in to try to get them to come back to their home country to provide CAMHS in places like Kerry? There are also other gaps in the system there.

Mental health has been to the forefront of our minds, alongside the normal Covid health issues over the past two years. Everybody has been aware of the deep impact of the pandemic on everybody's mental health, but particularly on children and young people. The ongoing housing crisis is also impacting on children's mental health with the isolation felt by them during the Covid crisis. There are also children from the LGBTQI+ communities who have particular issues in the normal scenarios but during the pandemic those issues were heightened even further. Traveller and Roma children face particular challenges in accessing healthcare and their mental health suffers a lot more than that of other children. We are aware that they have much poorer health outcomes. Extra supports should be directed in the direction. The waiting lists for diagnoses are very long and need to be shortened. I am aware that the Minister of State has made significant inroads on those waiting times since she had taken office, but a little bit more work needs to be done on it. I know the Minister of State is on top of that.

There is a particular issue when people reach the age of 18 and then transition into adult services. We are all aware that an 18 year old is still a young person. We should really look at keeping them within the youth health services until the age of 24 or 25, when it may be more suitable to transition into an adult service.

Children in care have a particular need for mental health supports. Every child in the care system should be given mental health supports as standard. Shockingly, it is awful to think that one quarter of the children who died in care died by suicide. That is a very stark figure. They should be given more supports because they are already dealing with a lot of challenges. It is not fair to put them into a system where they must prove that they are facing challenges.

The announcement of the 45 new staff recruited for the eating disorders health service is very welcome. Again, the pandemic meant that many more people were presenting with problems relating to eating disorders. It was very good to hear about this recruitment today because I was quite concerned looking at those figures that have been growing for the past two years. One bright light, other than the recruitment of 45 new staff, is that 81% of people presenting with an eating disorder actually get the treatment and support they need within four weeks. That is an excellent figure. Of course, there is always more that can be done. We must remember the 19% who do not receive the help within the timeframe, and we need to look at that. This is very good but there is a great deal of work that needs to be done in respect of eating disorders. There is still a great stigma there, and especially for young boys and men who present with eating disorders. We need a lot more public awareness about it and around what the rest of society can do to support people who are facing the challenges presented by eating disorders.That kind of education and public information campaign would be really welcome. It would help us because we all know family members, friends in our social circles and people in our communities who are struggling with eating disorders. We need to know how to spot them and support them as they are going through that. I am glad that there has been some progress and I know that more progress will be made. I hope the Cathaoirleach will facilitate the Minister of State to come back in a few months. I know she is meeting the families from Kerry next week. I look forward to hearing of progress coming from that meeting. I wish her the best of luck.