HSE apologises to children in Cork and Kerry 'still waiting too long' for ADHD assessment

ADHD Ireland has made four courses available in these counties for parents to access in the meantime

It had been expected the hub, which opened in October last year, would see 120 children or young people waiting for ADHD assessment and treatment from the Camhs lists “within six months of commencement”. File picture

The HSE in Cork and Kerry has apologised to children “still waiting too long” on assessment for ADHD despite a new hub seeing 80 children who had waited longer than 18 months.

It had been expected the hub, which opened in October last year, would see 120 children or young people waiting for ADHD assessment and treatment from the Camhs lists “within six months of commencement”.

Last August the Mental Health Commission said suspected ADHD was the most common reason for referring children in these counties to the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs). It was the second most common diagnosis.

However, they warned children waited “on average seven months from referral to assessment” for this condition and welcomed plans for this new hub.

A HSE spokeswoman said the SNAP team (specialist neurodevelopmental assessment pathway) has “screened approximately 80 referrals since Q4 2023” up to late May.

“The SNAP team is a waitlist initiative and the initial target for this team was to see young people waiting longer than 18 months for access to a community Camhs team with symptoms consistent with ADHD,” she said.

They are working through the Camhs lists starting with those waiting the longest, she said.

“While the initiative is successfully addressing the waiting list by offering appointments to those waiting the longest, we are aware that young people are still waiting too long for ADHD assessments after referrals by their Camhs community team,” she said.

“We apologise to anyone waiting to access ADHD assessments and we will continue this work to reduce the wait list.” 

She added there are still people on the community teams wait lists longer than 18 months whose symptoms do not indicate ADHD. They are not being assessed through this new approach.

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Ken Kilbride, CEO of ADHD Ireland, welcomed the SNAP team as “wonderful” for those children getting seen but still has concerns.

“They’re prioritising children who’ve already been 18 months on the list. The challenge with being 18 months on the list is that’s nearly two years in school,” he said.

This is particularly problematic for children moving between primary and secondary school who may face into a new environment without supports.

ADHD Ireland is now working with local Camhs teams to offer help to parents through their Cork office, he said.

“We have made four courses available to CHO 4 (HSE Cork and Kerry) and they will be starting before the new academic year,” he said.

“What we will be saying to the Camhs services is ‘if you have someone who is on the waiting lists for more than 18 months get the parents to do a course in the meantime’.” These are fully-funded by the HSE so free for parents to access.

“Parents can get them through their local Camhs, so particularly South Lee and North Lee,” he said. These are specific to this region for families on the waiting lists, he added. ADHD Ireland’s general parenting courses also continue to run around the country.