Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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139. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which he remains satisfied that the child and adolescent psychiatric services remain adequate to meet demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21196/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The HSE Mental Health Division ( MHD) supports timely access to appropriate services to address the mental health needs of all children, from a preventative care model and early intervention perspective. It should be noted, however, that the response to mental health issues is not the sole remit of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and may for example, be more appropriately addressed in other care areas, such as Primary Care, or Disability.

While a broad range of services support the mental health of children and adolescents, the term ‘CAMHS’ is usually applied very specifically to services that provide specialist mental health treatment and care to young people up to 18 years of age, through a multidisciplinary team. In 2015, the HSE National Service Plan objective for improved performance for the year is for 72% or greater of accepted referrals to Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Teams to be seen within three months, together with an overall 5% reduction in the waiting list, combined with a position where no-one is waiting over 12 months at end December 2015.

In relation to waiting times for an appointment , the following should be noted:

- All cases are triaged and urgent cases seen as a priority. Many of these urgent cases are seen within days. 55% of children seen in 2014 were seen in under 4 weeks.

- There has been an increased number of referrals to the service, including 16 and 17 yr. olds (over 50% of teams are seeing new referrals up to the age of 18 years, and the remainder new referrals up to the age of 17 years).

- In March last, there were around 1,800 children and adolescents waiting for a first appointment for longer than three months, of which some 480 were waiting more than 12 months for a first appointment with CAMHS.

- In March 2015, 75% of referrals nationally were offered a first appointment and seen within 12 weeks, with the year-to-date performance consistently ahead of the target of 72%.

A targeted approach to addressing the needs of those waiting over 12 months, combined with maintaining targets for first appointments and seeing individuals within three months, is a priority for 2015. A number of factors can contribute to an individual waiting longer than 12 months. The HSE has an on-going CAMHS Service Improvement Project and is currently carrying out a specific Validation Exercise on the waiting lists, to improve various aspects of CAMHS service provision.

I, and the HSE, will continue to progress and monitor the development of the CAMHS service, in line with agreed HSE Service Plan commitments, to ensure the adequacy of the service to meet current and future demands.