Kerry parents to meet government over failures in child mental health services

The Kerry Camhs Support Group believes that more children suffered harm under Kerry Camhs than those identified by the recently published Maskey report which exposed a litany of failures in the service. 

A group of parents representing children attending the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs) in Kerry are to meet government representatives at the Dáil next month.

Three representatives of the Kerry Camhs Support Group will have two meetings on March 2 in the Dáil, one with Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler and another with Fianna Fáil TDs including Jim O’Callaghan.

The group is represented by Maurice O’Connell and two other parents who wish to remain anonymous.

They plan to present a list of improvements they believe must be made to child and adolescent mental health services to better protect children at the meeting.

Facilitating and ensuring parent involvement is key to any service reform, one of the representatives told the Irish Examiner.

“They’re talking about reforming the service. They will not get that right unless they involve service users,” she said.

“We are listening to all parents’ concerns before presenting our list of changes because different children have different needs."

One of our key demands is that Kerry Camhs has at least one fully trained, full-time consultant.

“Another is that every family has a key worker who can come to appointments and liaise with the family on a consistent basis. In Camhs, there is a high turnover of doctors so we need one person to build a consistent relationship with. 

"This would build more accountability into the service and would give some consistency to care of patients. 

"When doctors change so frequently it’s very difficult for vulnerable children who are anxious and need a routine. 

"And when you have to describe your child’s challenges again and again to new doctors in front of your child, it’s difficult for them.

“Having one key worker could smooth over that process and they could help parents secure whatever additional therapies were suggested by the doctor, like OT [occupational therapy] or speech and language [therapy].

“We’d also like all child services to merge together. Currently, ADHD is treated in one service and autism is treated in another." 

However, many autistic children also have ADHD. There should be one service, with specialist training to care for all these children.

The Kerry Camhs Support Group is “growing all the time” and now represents around 30 parents, she said.

She said that parents in the group feel despair and guilt over their children’s treatment. But coming together to demand change together has also given them some hope.

The group has called for a public inquiry into both the HSE and Camhs.

She said that although their efforts are based in Kerry the problem is national.

“Whenever we post something on social media about the Camhs situation in Kerry, we get posts say ‘this is also happening in Donegal or Galway. It’s nationwide.

“And it’s not limited to Camhs. It’s outrageous that a suicidal child can be left on a waiting list for help for three years but there are also children with Spina Bifida on long waiting lists, and children waiting for approval for certain medications."

I was so full of guilt and regret over my child’s treatment. My child’s emotional development was stunted for two years. 

“He’s only now learning to feel emotions again, he’s only now learning to distinguish emotional pain from if someone hurts your feelings from physical pain. 

“He was sedated for so long he never had these feelings before. The service stole those two years of his life and he can never get those back."

The group believes that more children suffered harm under Kerry Camhs than those identified by the recently published Maskey report which exposed a litany of failures in the service. 

The report found the care received by 240 young people over an almost five-year period did not meet the standards which it should have while 46 children and young people suffered significant harm.

The group is calling for the report to be amended or rejected.

Any parents who would like to get in touch can email [e-mail] or go to Kerry CAMHS FSG on Facebook.