CAMHS staffing and capacity
Deputy Doherty raised severe staffing shortages and undercapacity in child and adolescent mental health services, asking for urgent action on Vision for Change recommendations. The Minister said recruitment was under way and more funds had been provided, but acknowledged difficulties and gaps; the Deputy rejected that response.
As the Taoiseach acknowledged yesterday, the programme for Government contains a range of commitments relating to the mental health services in this State. We all know that improvements are desperately needed in this area, particularly in respect of building capacity in the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. The Ombudsman's annual report, which was published this week, highlights the shortfall in staffing levels within the CAMHS team and the effect that this has on children and young people. For some time, these teams across the State have been operating at 50% capacity. CHO1, which includes my county of Donegal, has the lowest level of staffing at 51% compared to the recommendations set out in A Vision for Change. That is completely unacceptable. We know the impact this has on young people and their families as well as the staff who are charged with their care. They all deserve better.
Promises were made by Government last year to address the disastrous staffing gaps within CAMHS. We were told it would be addressed-----
Comment on this
It clearly has not been addressed. Will the Minister recommit the Government to doing everything that can be done to ensure that this happens without delay and set out very clearly how it intends to bring those recommendations contained within A Vision for Change into reality?
Comment on this
I understand the HSE is in the final stages of recruiting staff required to deliver a seven days a week mental health service. It has recruited 114 assistant psychologists and 22 psychologists to develop a primary care element. One difficulty in our system is that primary care has been underdeveloped and everything is going to a consultant-led service in CAMHS, so that is a very important part of developing an integrated service. The additional funds have been provided but there are undoubtedly gaps and there are difficulties in recruiting in this area, which has been acknowledged.
In my area of responsibility, we are expanding very significantly the National Education Psychological Service, NEPS, because we recognise that increasingly mental health challenges appear in our schools and we must build the capacity at that stage, before access to any form of referral system to build greater capability and resilience in the system.
Comment on this
The Government is failing the executive badly.