Child psychology service delays
Deputy Martin raised long waits for children's therapeutic and psychology services. The Taoiseach welcomed the Children's Rights Alliance scorecard, acknowledged delays, and said the Government is making systemic changes; the Ceann Comhairle cut short excessive detail.
The programme for Government is clear that the Government will provide ongoing support for Tusla in delivering targeted intervention services and that it will also support the increased use of therapeutic intervention services for children. The report published yesterday by the Children's Rights Alliance makes for very stark reading in terms of children's lack of access to therapeutic services. In particular, according to the figures, up to 7,000 children under the age of 17 years are awaiting an appointment to see a HSE psychologist. What is more worrying is the failure of children in many parts of the country to access child and adolescent mental health services and multi-disciplinary services, particularly speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. I put it to the Taoiseach that the waiting lists and the lack of accessibility are evidence of the lack of delivery of a key part of the programme for Government to meet the needs of children.
Comment on this
I note the publication yesterday of the Children's Rights Alliance score card, which shows an improved performance by the Government in its view, moving us from a D, a bare pass, to a C minus which I suppose is a bare honour and nothing to be celebrated. However, it is certainly encouraging that the Children's Rights Alliance believes the overall performance of the Government in the case of children is moving up rather than down the ranks.
In respect of child psychology services, the Government acknowledges that far too many children have to wait far too long to see a psychologist to get the help they need. For a parent, any wait, even a short one, causes great anxiety, while a long wait causes enormous anguish. It is for that reason that an extra €5 million has been invested in child psychology services and it is making a difference. If we look at the figures from July 2017, we will see that 6,850 children were waiting for psychology services. By the end of 2017, that number had fallen to 6,300. We are, therefore, seeing it move in the right direction. This has largely been done through the recruitment of 414 assistant psychologists because, as is often the case in health care services, the system was wrong. People were being referred straight to specialists-----
