State under fire for failings in child health
In an overview of the Government’s performance on child health to be published today, the Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) will claim that shortfalls in primary care and mental health provisions are just two areas where the state is falling dangerously behind targets.
The Children’s Rights Alliance Report Card 2009, which checks whether commitments made in documents such as the National Development Plan have been delivered, also criticises Government performance in other areas such as education, giving the Government a D grade overall, and claims that out of 25 key commitments in documents such as Towards 2016 and the Programme for Government, 50% are seriously behind schedule and seven commitments show significant monitoring problems.
However, it saves its sharpest criticism for shortcomings in children’s health, claiming that:
* Just 97 primary care teams have been established, well short of the 300 promised by the end of last year under Towards 2016
* Just 47 child and adolescent mental health teams are up and running, short of the target of 71 in A Vision for Change
* Just 16 in-patient beds are available, often leading to teenagers being treated in adult psychiatric or medical wards, and short of the 100 beds recommended
* There is no sign of a national nutrition policy to combat child obesity despite three years of work.
The report’s section on health is particularly scathing on the “two tier system of healthcare”, claiming they are “unsatisfactory and uncoordinated” and needing structural reform. It cites the example of a child with speech and language difficulties, claiming that such children from less-well-off backgrounds can face potentially life-changing waits of six months for basic assessment and treatment.
“A framework is needed to protect children from the risks inherent in the Irish system, which is concerned primarily with money, rather than children’s health outcomes,” the report states.
The CRA claims that almost 60% of existing child and adolescent health teams have waiting lists of 75 or more children. Counties Carlow, Kilkenny and Sligo are particularly affected with up to 270 awaiting treatment and facing waiting times of up to a year.
The report calls for the ring-fencing of funding to tackle under-resourced areas, with a renewed focus on primary care and budgetary accountability for mental health initiatives.
“It is not apparent, even to those responsible for monitoring, who has budgetary responsibility for mental health services in the HSE or how budgetary decisions affecting mental health are made,” the report states. “In this environment, it is impossible to know what progress can be expected — or when.”
It claims efforts to reach mental health targets have been “dismal”, with overall spending on mental health, as a share of public health spending, standing at 7.8% in 2007, lagging behind spend in other EU countries and despite 20% of children here known to be experiencing mental health disorders of varying severity.
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