200 young people admitted to adult psychiatric units

TWO hundred young people were admitted to adult psychiatric units last year, seven of which were involuntary admissions, in a practice branded “inappropriate and unhelpful” by health professionals.

As it emerged this week that four teenagers, two boys and two girls aged 14 to 17, were admitted to the adult unit at Waterford Regional Hospital over the weekend, the Mental Health Commission said it was incumbent on hospitals to notify it within 72 hours as since July 2009, no child under 16 years is to be admitted to an adult unit.

No child under 17 years is to be admitted to an adult unit from December 1.

Furthermore, the state watchdog says it is “concerned” by the occupation of scarce Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) beds by people with no mental disorder.

It said young people with no diagnosable mental disorder, often with social problems, have been admitted to child and adolescent units simply as they have nowhere else to go. This is inappropriate and potentially damaging to these people – as well as depriving others of needed beds, it says.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Siobhán Barry said a unit for young people in Waterford had been planned for as far back as 1984, but had never materialised.

Dr Barry said the admission of young people to adult units was “unhelpful and inappropriate”. She said in a case where it did happen, the local CAMHS team should step in to deal with the clinical care of the young person.

Otherwise, she said, the hospital time was “custodial” and nothing else.

In 2009, 94% of child admissions to adult units were 16 and 17 years of age and the remaining 6% were 15 years of age or under.

The HSE said it was “exceptional and uncommon” that a teenager under the age of 17 would be admitted to an adult psychiatric unit.

The HSE added that a 20-bed Inpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit is set to open at Bessboro, Blackrock, Cork, with 30 additional frontline mental health staff, by December 1.