Ombudsman: Children let down by mental health system 'patching over gaping holes'

The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, said: “We are inundated with the numbers of vacant posts but never do we see the plan to fill these positions, or to create a new system that might not rely so heavily on a single profession.”  File picture: Maxwells

Far too many children are being let down by a mental health system that “did nothing but patch over huge gaping holes” in the service since the last closure of inpatient beds five years ago, the Children’s Ombudsman has said.

Dr Niall Muldoon said consistent calls from him and others for recruitment and retention plans for staff have “fallen on deaf ears”. The ombudsman was responding to widespread alarm at the closure of almost half of the beds at the country’s biggest child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit, at Linn Dara, in west Dublin.