Wait times for youth mental health charity have almost tripled in Cork 

Access to charity's services last year in Cork was 11 weeks, so far this year it is running at an average of 29 weeks

Sinn Féin has said that it is unacceptable that over 4,000 children are waiting for longer than a year to get an appointment with Camhs. Picture: David Cheskin/PA

Wait times for Jigsaw child and adolescent services have increased this year in 10 of the 14 areas in which it operates around the country — and have almost tripled in Cork.

The HSE figures show that while the average waiting time for access to the youth mental health charity's services last year in Cork was 11 weeks, to the end of September this year it was running at an average of 29 weeks.

The longest average waiting time this year to access the service is Limerick, at 31 weeks — whereas last year the average wait time there was 16 weeks.

Waiting lists for Jigsaw services in certain parts of the country have reduced, the HSE says

However, there were reductions in waiting times in Wicklow, North Fingal, Meath, Dublin South West, and Dublin City, according to the latest figures.

The HSE said the total number of young people awaiting their first appointment was 1,430.

As of last September, there were 3,818 children on the waiting list for Camhs (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), 1,320 (34.6%) of those are waiting less than 12 weeks and 407 (10.7%) are waiting more than a year.

The HSE said there has been an overall reduction of 476 cases between June and September in those waiting for the intervention for the acute mental health service.

Urgent referrals

It also said that 92.5% of urgent referrals to Camhs were responded to within three working days, meeting or exceeding the 90% target.

Some 67% of referrals accepted by child and adolescent community teams were offered an appointment within 12 weeks against a target of 80% and 8% of accepted referrals / re-referrals offered first appointment and seen within 12 months, it added.

However, last week Sinn Féin deputy Mark Ward said the number of people waiting for an appointment with Camhs has risen this year to over 4,000, with "unacceptable increases in those waiting for longer than a year".

Referring to figures received by party colleague, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, Mr Ward said: "Over 4,000 children are waiting on appointments for Camhs, this is an increase of 32% on figures we received for 2021.

Early intervention is critical to reaching an improved outcome.

"More and more of our young people are not receiving this timely care and there are increase in amount of young people presenting to Camhs for treatment and the amount of tome they are waiting on an appointment.

“In my own area of CHO7 there are currently 22 young people waiting over 12 months for an appointment with 519 young people waiting over a year nationally.

“This is an increase of more than 157% since 2021 This is totally unacceptable."

Jigsaw provides free, confidential, brief mental health supports for young people aged 12-25.

Early intervention is key with Jigsaw research showing children as young as 12 were expressing a desire to hurt themselves. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA

Just last month the Irish Examiner revealed that children as young as 12 were among the 1,083 young people seen by Jigsaw who expressed a desire to hurt themselves.

Analysing almost 10,000 presentations over a seven-year period, the study by the Schools of Psychology at University College Dublin and Ulster University found 11.2% of all those young people had expressed a desire — at some stage — to hurt themselves; something lead author Neil Mac Dhonnagáin said was "quite alarming".

Jigsaw itself noted that Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis had meant mental health services were stretched like never before.