Suicidal children in Cork and Kerry waiting 50 days for help

Understaffing is causing long wait lists, limited therapeutic interventions, and staff burnout, a new report shows

Cork and Kerry had the biggest waiting list with 902 children and teenagers waiting for Camhs care, a new Mental Health Commission national report found.

Suicidal children are waiting more than 50 days on average to be seen by mental health services in Cork and Kerry.

And the majority of psychiatry in South Kerry is conducted from Doha, a report into the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) has found.

Nationally, there were 4,451 children and teenagers waiting for Camhs, according to Thursday’s Mental Health Commission (MHC) report into Camhs provision across the HSE.

Acute understaffing is leaving vulnerable children languishing on waiting lists of up to three years as they are passed between mental health services, acutely understaffed disability services, and primary care.

Despite the recent scandal of children being harmed by services in South Kerry, the area remains without a permanent consultant psychiatrist since 2016.

Significant harm was caused to 46 children and 240 young people were put at risk of significant harm in South Kerry Camhs, according to the Maskey report, published in January 2022.

In its report, the MHC said it was “concerned” about low levels of consultant psychiatrist cover in South Kerry.

A consultant psychiatrist covers 23.5 hours a week by telepsychiatry from Doha.

Understaffing

Staffing is below Government targets across Cork and Kerry Camhs with six consultant posts vacant. Understaffing is causing long wait lists, limited therapeutic interventions, and contributing to staff burnout, the MHC report found.

These vacant posts are covered by a mix of locums, cross-cover, Irish and international telepsychiatry, and weekend and evening clinics from consultants from outside the Cork/Kerry area.

Two sets of parents told the MHC that their children’s diagnoses, treatment, and medication changed every time there was a change of doctor, which was frequent due to locums being in place.

Children are also falling between the cracks between mental health and disability services, although autism and intellectual disabilities are common in children experiencing mental health difficulties.

There is no one catch-all service for children with disabilities and mental ill-health with waiting lists of up to three years for some children’s disability services. Although there is good communication between some children’s disability services and Camhs in Cork and Kerry, that is not uniform.

Left 'begging'

Parents are left “begging” for their children to be seen as they watch them deteriorate as they are passed from one unacceptably long waiting list to another, the report noted.

Although Cork and Kerry Camhs did have highly skilled staff who offer a wide range of interventions, understaffing was a problem, the report found.

Despite an almost 20% increase in referrals to Camhs from 2016 to 2021, there has not been a corresponding increase in staffing.

Cork and Kerry had the biggest waiting list with 902 children and teenagers waiting for Camhs care.

But acute understaffing was also causing considerable problems in Limerick, Clare, and North Tipperary, which had 24 concerns about its services raised by the MHC — the highest number of concerns of any Camhs area, followed by Cork and Kerry with nine.

All consultants worked part time only in Limerick, Clare, and North Tipperary Camhs and that area had no out-of-hours Camhs.

Multiple consultant psychiatrists and team members said that the service was unsafe due to the lack of consultant cover.

In one team, out of a waiting list of 145 young people, 56 were waiting for more than 12 months.