Adolescent mental health services reach breaking point

Staffing has hit such a low point in Cork City, potentially suicidal children can’t be guaranteed they will be able to access the emergency specialist care they need, write Claire O’Sullivan and Eoin English

THERE have been complaints for years that, due to widespread understaffing in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), children and teenagers had to be suicidal before they could secure timely access to mental health treatment.

If your teenager was in thrall to an eating disorder or refusing to leave their bedroom because they felt so low, he or she would most likely be added to a waiting list to see a CAMHS team and they could be on that waiting list for anything from three months to over a year.