Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 301: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the chronic lack of psychiatric and psychological services for teenagers under 18 years and the fact that the only services available to this category are adult services; the way the delineation of services in terms of age is organised; if gaps exist in service provision; the number of whole-time equivalent psychologists and psychiatrists allocated to public services; the number of these that are vacant expressed in whole-time equivalent terms; when the adequacy of such services was last reviewed; and her plans to expand services, and in particular the plans to expand services for minors. [17427/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy, entitled "A Vision for Change", was published in January 2006. It provides a framework for action to develop a modern, high quality mental health service over a 7 to 10 year implementation timeframe. "A Vision for Change" acknowledges gaps in the current provision of child and adolescent mental health services and makes several recommendations for the further improvement of these services. The report recommends that child and adolescent mental health services should provide mental health services to all aged 0-18 years.

An audit of child and adolescent mental health teams was carried out by the Health Service Executive in March 2007. At this time there was 45.6 whole time equivalent consultant psychiatrists and 48.04 whole time equivalent clinical psychologists on these teams. There were 3.66 whole time equivalent consultant psychiatrist vacancies and 12 whole time equivalent clinical psychologist vacancies. It is important to note that multidisciplinary child and adolescent mental health teams also include registrars, social workers, occupational therapists, nurses, childcare workers, other therapists and administrative support staff.

In 2006, €3.25 million was provided for the enhancement of child and adolescent services including the development of eight new multidisciplinary teams. A further €7.95 million has been provided in 2007 to significantly improve both community and hospital based services and facilitate the provision of early intervention services. The multidisciplinary nature of existing child and adolescent mental health teams will be enhanced and a further eight new teams will be developed in 2007.