Child mental health units still not built

FIVE new units for children with mental health problems have yet to be built, despite a Government promise to do so three years ago.

None of the projects has even gone beyond the tendering stage, despite a severe shortage of facilities for children and adolescents in need of in-patient psychiatric care.

Twenty-four children under the age of 16 had to be admitted or detained in adult psychiatric units last year, it emerged yesterday.

This included a 15-year-old with behavioural problems, who spent more than two years in an adult facility in Limerick.

In March 2001, the Department of Health pledged to develop five new in-patient psychiatric units for children between the ages of six and 16.

This followed recommendations made in the first report of the Working Group on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, established the previous year to examine existing services.

Yesterday, the department said project teams had been established to develop four of the five in-patient units - in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. But construction is unlikely to begin on any of them soon.

The project brief for the unit at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin won’t be ready until next year at the earliest.

The briefs have been completed on the units planned for Cork, Limerick and Galway, but there are no designs ready or construction dates set.

The delay in developing the units comes despite a glaring lack of facilities. There are just two in-patient units for children under 16, at Warrenstown House in Dublin and St Anne’s in Galway.

There is also a shortage of suitable facilities for children between the ages of 16 and 18, with many patients being treated in adult institutions, a practice which contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Mental Health Commission estimates 120 beds nationally would be sufficient to cater for under-18s who require in-patient care. But it is understood just 20 beds are available.