Mental health teams figure ‘misleading’

IT is “misleading” to say there are 55 child and adolescent mental health teams operating around the country, according to a leading child psychiatrist.

Dr Keith Holmes, chair of the faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Irish College of Psychiatry warned that while it was technically true to say there are 55 teams in place, he warned of mistaking the number of consultants with the number of properly staffed mental health teams.

According to the HSE’s definition, a team is made up of just one consultant.