Children's Rights Alliance give Govt low marks on mental health issues

The Government needs to do more to help the mental health needs of children, an advocacy group claimed today.

That’s according to the Children’s Rights Alliance which has published its latest report card giving the coalition an overall "C" grade.

The group ranked the Government's performance on mental health near the bottom of the scale with an "E" grade.

"The Government committed to spend €35m on mental health in the programme for Government, but it only spent €20m last year," Chief Executive Tanya Ward said.

"The number of children waiting for assessment and treatment has increased two-fold by about 200 children last year, and we saw 68 children being held in adult psychiatric units."

Education came top of the list with an "A-" grade.