More than 500 children waiting over a year to be seen by mental health service

The situation has been described as 'unconscionable' with one child in Cork waiting 21 months to be seen.

More than 500 children have been waiting more than a year to be seen by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs).

The figure has emerged in the same week in which it was revealed that the percentage of referrals being taken on by Camhs around the country is continuing to fall, slipping below 50% in three health areas.

In a response to a parliamentary question tabled by Cork East TD Sean Sherlock, the HSE said 4,294 young people were waiting to be seen by Camhs, with CHO4  — Cork and Kerry — the area with the highest number, 826.

Of the 508 children waiting more than a year to be seen, 186 are in Cork and Kerry, while 116 are in CHO3, which covers Limerick, Clare, and North Tipperary.

A total of 1,579 children around the country have been waiting at least six months to be seen.

Mr Sherlock described the situation as "unconscionable". The Labour TD said in his own constituency he had been working on behalf of the family of one child who has waited 21 months to access Camhs.

Postcode lottery

He said: "This is another example of a postcode lottery in operation with children and families the collateral damage.

"I want to reassure people that we continue to press the HSE but I'm not buying into the recruitment argument that's been put to us day in, day out by the HSE and the Government, in other words, that they don't have enough frontline staff and they're not able to recruit them. 

"Because I think if you try hard enough, if you go out to the world, if you create the right packages for people, you will be able to attract people in those frontline staff and, at the end of the day, this is about children and adolescents. Their futures count, and we want to keep fighting for them.”

Referrals

Earlier this week, figures released under Freedom of Information show that that the number of referrals accepted into Camhs had gone from 72% in 2020, to 67% last year, to 62% in the first four months of this year.

The figures from the HSE show all nine community health organisations (CHOs) have seen some form of decline this year compared to the situation in 2020, and that while the decline in referrals accepted is modest in some areas, it is significant in others.

For example, in CHO4, 70% of referrals were accepted in 2020, which fell to 59% last year and just 47% for the first four months of 2022.

In CHO9 — Dublin North, Dublin North Central and Dublin North West — the rate of referral acceptance into Camhs has gone from 62% in 2020 to 56% last year and just 45% to the end of April this year.

The data shows that hundreds of referrals have been accepted into facilities including Linn Dara, where almost half the beds at its in-patient unit have been closed temporarily due to a staffing shortage. 

Merlin Park, Eist Linn, and St Vincent's have also dealt with a number of referrals in recent years.