Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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293. To ask the Minister for Health the new services which would be required in order to end the admission of children and adolescents to adult inpatient units; and the estimated cost of this to the Exchequer. [12099/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The reduction in the numbers of children admitted to adult psychiatric units has been a focus for the HSE Mental Health Services over recent years. Progress in this area has been significant, as evidenced by the fact that the number of such admissions to adult units in 2008 was 247, and that the number of such admissions declined to 89 at the end of 2014. The trend was reversed slightly with a slight increase of 6 at the end of 2015. In March 2016, 98.7% of bed days used were in Child and Adolescent Acute Inpatient Units, an improvement on the 97.2% in February. Performance continues to be above the target of 95%, indicating that where a child has been admitted to an adult acute inpatient unit, the length of stay has been kept to a minimum.

Figures for 2015 indicate that there were 95 admissions of children to adult psychiatric units. It is important to note that the number of admissions does not necessarily equate to the number of children admitted, as a child may be admitted on one or more occasions in any given year. In 2015, there was a total of 356 CAMHS admissions, of which 261 (73%) were to age-appropriate units and 95 (27%) to Adult Units. In the National Service Plan 2016 the HSE have set a target of 95% of admissions of admission of children and adolescents to adult in-patients units, while allowing for some operational flexibility surrounding emergency placements in Adult Units. The HSE continues to monitor all CAMHS admissions to adult units.

The issue raised by the Deputy is a action for improvement in the HSE Service Plan for 2016, in line with available resources. The objective of further reducing the number of admissions to adult units involves continued improvements to CAMHS service provision, including additional CAMHS acute bed capacity, enhanced community based supports, and ongoing roll out of the Standard Operational Procedures for CAMHS nationally, introduced by the HSE last year. This issue is being addressed in the current year in the context of the additional funding being provided to develop Mental Health services in 2016, including a more integrated approach to CAMHS provision overall with other care programmes such as Disabilities or Primary Care. In this context, is not possible to specifically cost the issue raised by the Deputy.