Child mental health consultants ‘have just 33%’ of required staff

NEW consultants appointed to deal with growing waiting lists in child and adolescent mental health services only have one third of the frontline staff they need and often have no premises from which to work.

Despite having the fourth-highest rate of suicide in Europe among 15 to 24-year-olds, the latest HSE figures also show more than 2,600 children and adolescents are on waiting lists for mental health services – with more than a quarter of those waiting for more than one year to access services.

Dr Keith Holmes, chair of child and adolescent psychiatry within the Irish College of Psychiatry, also warned that just 55 of the promised 99 community mental health teams have been delivered and that while new consultants were being appointed, a lack of resources meant “significant limits” existed when it came to what could be achieved.

Unpublished details from last year’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) first annual report obtained by the Irish Examiner show managers raised serious concerns about their inability to deliver comprehensive services due to the pressure on staff.

Document after document cites that “very often” emergency referrals and the number of complex cases they have to deal impacts greatly on waiting list.

Highlighting the ongoing crisis in the mental health services, the HSE confirmed that in Laois/Offaly, the waiting list has been closed to all referrals other than acute psychiatric disorder for almost two years.

According to the HSE, 35 new posts are being recruited for CAMHS.

Dr Holmes said while this would be a “drop in the ocean”, it would be a very welcome one for the teams that got the staff.