Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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84. To ask the Minister for Health the progress he has made in ending the practice of placing children and adolescents in adult psychiatric wards, further to the commitment of the programme for Government. [3205/16]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Government has provided an additional €160m ringfenced funding over 2012-16 to modernise mental health services in line with A Vision for Change(AVFC) and Programme for Government commitments. This provided around 1,150additional posts to enhance mental health and suicide prevention services generally. Of these, approximately 950 posts were filled at the end of November last, and the remainder are at various stages of the recruitment process. Around 300 of these posts were approved for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). There are continuing challenges in relation to recruitment of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Consultants and we are actively trying to recruit both at home and internationally.

The HSE National Service Plan 2016 aims to improve placement of children in age appropriate mental health settings. The 95% target indicated in the Plan allows for some operational flexibility surrounding emergency placements in Adult Units. It is generally accepted that it remains quite challenging for the HSE to meet this ambitious target, relative to progress over recent years and in light of increasing demands generally on CAMHS. Progress on this important issue has nonetheless been significant, underscored by the fact that, while there were 247 such admissions to adult units in 2008, the trend has been declining annually since, to 89 admissions in 2014. It is a priority for the HSE to keep such admissions to a minimum and this is kept under constant review.

I have prioritised CAMHS in the new funding made available by Government, designed to support timely access to appropriate services to address the mental health needs of all children, while emphasising the early intervention and integrated service perspectives. Additional resources and facilities means that we now have 67 CAMHS Teams, and 3 Paediatric Liaison Teams, supported by 66 operational CAMHS beds across the country.

The HSE is committed to ensuring that all aspects of CAMHS services are delivered in a consistent and timely fashion, including improved Access to age appropriate units. The Executive introduced, around June last, a new Standard Operating Procedurefor both in-patient and community CAMHS services. This has contributed to improving the services overall, including reducing inappropriate admissions of adolescents to adult units. It is designed also to help reduce CAMHS Waiting Lists, particularly for those waiting over 12 months.

There were 90 admissions of the type raised by the Deputy over the period January-November 2015. The majority of these were voluntary with parental consent. Approximately 85% of these were 16 -17 year old; a third of these were discharged within 2 days of admission, and two thirds within a week. However, in relation to this latest trend, it should be noted that an extra 8 CAMHS beds recently opened in the new Linn Dara Unit in Dublin, which should help decrease pressures on CAMHS admissions to adult units. It is intended to open further CAMHS beds in the system, as on-going staffing and recruitment difficulties generally for the mental health area are addressed.

Bearing in mind all the circumstances, I am satisfied that the HSE is making good progress in relation to the issued raised by the Deputy, including the wishes of each young person and their parents or guardians, taking account the complexities of each case. In many cases, a multi-disciplinary or inter-agency approach is required. I will continue to closely monitor this issue, in conjunction with the HSE, to ensure that the new funding I secured for mental health overall for 2016, will contribute to improving CAMHS services, and aiming for age appropriate admissions across all regions.