Where you live should not determine how long you wait for Camhs services, says minister

Minister for health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said: 'Why should it be that you are more at risk of not getting a mental health appointment in Cork and Kerry than, for example, in Louth or in Meath?' File photo: Sam Boal/Collins Photos

Young people seeking youth mental health services and other healthcare provisions should not be “prejudiced” or denied access to services due to "regional inequity”, the health minister has said.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill admitted that it is "not right" that youths in Cork and Kerry are facing longer delays in accessing Camhs (child and adolescent mental health services), as she vowed changes to how healthcare regions are funded.

As reported by the Irish Examiner on Friday, more than 500 children across the country are waiting longer than a year for a Camhs appointment.

Of those waiting longer than 12 months, 305 are youths living in Cork and Kerry, which is serviced by the HSE South West. Camhs provides mental health assistance to under 18s with moderate to severe mental health difficulties.

Ms Carroll MacNeill said the number of children waiting longer than a year is “not acceptable” as she acknowledged that there are particular issues in the South-West.

“That’s exactly why I'm changing the financing system for the HSE this year,” she said. “Why should it be that you are more at risk of not getting a mental health appointment in Cork and Kerry than, for example, in Louth or in Meath?

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“That's not fair. It's not right, and I'm changing the financing of the HSE this year specifically to try to address regional inequity. I spoke about this around the budget. I spoke about this in the health committee.

“We're giving allocations to the region so that they can bring themselves up to the highest performer, rather than having regional inequity on mental health, regional inequity on the time that it takes to get a cancer treatment, a cancer scan, any of those different things.

“You should not be prejudiced or advantaged in Ireland because of your particular geography.

“I want everybody to lift to the same standard, and that is specifically why we are moving to a financing system that is different, that doesn't allocate money by me saying, ‘Oh, there's 10 jobs here and five jobs there’, but one which lifts the regions together.

“It's a much more progressive, modern, intelligent way of financing health.”

Mental health

Ms Carroll McNeil said the Government is making progress on mental health services, arguing that 90% of youths with an “urgent referral” are being seen within three days.

Another 63% are being seen within the 12-week targets set under Sláintecare. However, she acknowledged “that's all well and good unless it's your child who hasn't gotten the care that they need”.

The health minister said the mental health minister Mary Butler has provision to hire 300 staff members, with €3m allocated for “targeted intervention to try to get urgent intervention for children who have been waiting for one reason or another for over 12 months”.

She added: “[It] is totally unacceptable. It is not good enough, and we're doing everything that we can to try to continue with some progress that has been made and needs to continue to be made.”

Figures provided to Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice, who is also chairman of the Oireachtas Health Committee, show that nearly 2,800 children are waiting over three months to access Camhs services.

The Cork South Central TD said that the waiting lists are “indefensible”, arguing that “these vulnerable children are being utterly failed by the State”.