HSE admits workforce for children's mental health services needs to double
HSE chief executive, Bernard Gloster, accepted waiting times for Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services 'remain too long in some parts of the country' still. Picture: Brendan Gleeson
Mental health services for children who are severely ill need to double the workforce to meet rising demand, the HSE has admitted.
The Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) treat about 2% of children and young people but saw demand grow by 16% between 2019 and 2022. Dr Amanda Burke, clinical lead for Youth Mental Health, told the Oireachtas Health Committee that staff increases are needed, especially psychiatrists or health and social care professionals.
“At the minute we have 716 clinical staff and we probably need about double that,” she told Senator Frances Black. “It is going to take at least five years, I would have thought, we are improving our pipeline (for hiring).”
HSE CEO Bernard Gloster said there are “ongoing staff retention and recruitment difficulties”. A new Child and Youth Mental Health Action Plan is expected this year, although he said improvements have already begun following a series of critical reports.
Camhs received 23,874 referrals last year, and he accepted waiting times “remain too long in some parts of the country” still. “I want to acknowledge the huge pain and suffering this can cause for young people and their families,” he said.
He told the committee the number of appointments given grew by 10% over three years up to 2022, with six areas now seeing benefits from waiting list projects. The data shows 3,842 children waiting at the end of May which is 789 less than May last year.
He said: “97.1% of urgent referrals are responded to within three days, 57% of non-urgent referrals were seen within 12 weeks (April data), while 87% are seen within 12 months.”
Dr Burke said children are triaged and she accepted children with ADHD can be left waiting while children in crisis situations are seen.
A new single point of access is being developed to help reduce the time families spend going from place to place for help, the committee was told.
Senator Martin Conway asked what is being done to address the long wait times in Clare and neighbouring counties. “Any child waiting any period of time is unacceptable,” Dr Burke said.
There has been “significant progress”, she said, with figures for that region showing a drop of 19% so far. The HSE are also looking at external providers, she told Fianna Fáil TD for Clare Cathal Crowe.
This could include using online interventions as part of care in that area and elsewhere. However medication cannot be prescribed through remote assessment, she said.
Camhs have hired six new consultants through the new public-only contract, including for the mid-west region, she said.
The committee also heard much discussion on the recruitment freeze and its impact for Camhs as well as other services.
There are now the equivalent of 148,159 full-time roles filled in the HSE by 167,034 people, Mr Gloster said, showing an increase of 22.3% since December 2019. He highlighted exemptions given for hiring to critical frontline jobs.
