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.

Among the unfilled posts nationwide are 20 clinical nurse specialist posts; 13 consultant psychiatrist; and 10 psychologist posts.

Ideally, the CAMHs multidisciplinary teams should comprise a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, junior medical staff, two psychologists, two social workers, two nurses, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist, and a child care worker. All of these posts are affected by vacancies.

Fianna Fáil children’s spokeswoman Anne Rabbitte, who obtained the figures from the HSE, said the scale of vacancies is “frightening”.

“With 82 vacancies in the service right across the country, that’s about one in every eight positions currently in place,” said Ms Rabbitte.

The deficits highlight the Government’s failure to meet commitments in A Vision for Change, its blueprint for overhaul of mental health services.

“Successive ministers have promised to prioritise mental health, but the reality of the situation has been exposed through these figures,” said Ms Rabbitte.

CAMHs was an essential community scheme, “which children, teenagers, and their parents rely on”, Ms Rabbitte said as she called on Health Minister Simon Harris and Mental Health Minister Helen McEntee to take urgent action.

The HSE said its community services are attempting to recruit, “but are dependent on market for both these and replacement posts”.

“Currently there are significant difficulties attracting and retaining staff in particular specialties. However, the HSE continues to make every effort to attract suitable candidates.”