Poor provision of mental health services for young people a 'key concern', report finds

The independent report on the new policy framework for children in Ireland published on Monday by the Department of Children noted that one in 10 respondents could not identify anything positive when asked what is going well for children and young people in Ireland today. File picture

Poor provision of mental health services and long waiting lists for health services were among the “most dominant messages” that arose in a consultation on the Government’s proposed new strategy for children and young people in Ireland.

Furthermore, it was said that more must be done to respond to the impact of Covid-19 on children and young people and a rethink is needed on how essential services are delivered to children if situations such as the pandemic lockdowns arise again.

An independent report on the new policy framework for children in Ireland was published on Monday by the Department of Children. It noted that one in 10 respondents could not identify anything positive when asked what is going well for children and young people in Ireland today.

“Many respondents qualified their responses to say that not all children and young people benefit from these improvements,” such as access to education and healthcare, the report said.

The Government received over 270 responses to its public consultation on the framework. Most (58%) came from professionals/service providers in this area, 22% came from children and 20% came from parents.

Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman, has said that the new policy framework will set out the vision and priorities of the Government over the next five years and “have a real impact on the systems and services that support children, young people and families”. He also said it would “take on board the criticism of the range of low-level commitments in the previous framework”.

Among the most common problems cited among respondents ahead of this new framework was in mental health services. “Even when services are available and accessed, respondents described failures within the system,” the report said.

“These included inappropriate referrals, not getting the support from the right professionals, specialist services not able to meet the need, children being referred to adult wards, poor access to (child-friendly) counselling, and services not being responsive to young people’s needs.” 

The report noted other descriptions of poor access to crisis interventions for children and families where suicide and self-harm is an issue.  Another service provider said the increased referrals to domestic violence support indicated a need for additional early prevention, while services in general were described as “under-resourced and short staffed”.

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The experience of children with disabilities was noted, with some children described as “falling through gaps and long waiting lists for assessments and services”.

“They described a lack of co-ordination of services, delays in assessments, diagnoses, delayed access to early intervention services, poor support and respite for families (resulting in overburdened families), and educational needs not being met,” the report said.

Problems were also cited within education, issues around children in poverty and in precarious housing situations.

There were calls to secularise education, reform the junior and senior cycles and revise the curriculum to focus more on life skills as well as diversity and respect.

Among the priorities for reform under the new policy framework, the report grouped them under general headings of rethink, reform and resource education (mentioned by 63% of respondents), improve wellbeing and mental health services (48%) and addressing social inclusion (44%).

After the recent Budget, Mr O’Gorman said that €8 million was being set aside to go towards the new policy framework. The Government is expected to publish it early in the new year.