Over 80 posts unfilled in mental health services for children and adolescents

A staggering 82 posts remain unfilled across community mental health services that cater for children and adolescents with severe mental health disorders, including suicidal youngsters.

The difficulties in staffing the HSE’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHs) are not confined to the community — yesterday the Irish Examiner reported that an emergency out-of-hours, on-call CAMHs at hospital emergency departments in Cork has been suspended due to chronic staffing problems.

The 82 vacancies across community CAMHs teams are most pronounced in the Kildare/Wicklow/Dublin area, where 27 posts are unfilled. In the South-East, 12 posts are vacant, with a further nine vacancies in Donegal/Sligo/Cavan-Monaghan. There are eight vacancies in the Cork and Kerry community service.