CAMHS staffing shortages
Martin Kenny highlighted severe recruitment and retention problems in health services, focusing on a child in the Sligo-Leitrim area who needed a school-age psychology assessment but could not get one locally. The Taoiseach said a debate on CAMHS would follow, more psychologists had been hired, and workforce shortages had to be factored into service design.
As the Taoiseach will be aware, there is a considerable problem in regard to recruitment and retention in the health services. In the past week or so, I was contacted by a family who have a child with autism who really need help. The child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, are dealing with them but they have not got a school-age psychologist, or even a school-age psychology team, in place in the Sligo-Leitrim area. It is the same in many areas. The family wanted to know whether the child could go to another area to get the assessment the child badly needs in order to get services. They are told "No", but yet there is no service available where they are. This is an issue not only in my area or constituency but in every constituency. While efforts are being made to recruit staff and to try to resolve the situation, the problem has reached emergency proportions for many of these families. This mother told me about her child having violent episodes, having meltdowns and having significant problems. This family is at its wit's end as to what to do. The parents are lying awake at night watching their child and worrying something will happen, and yet the answer they get is an apology that there is no service.
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In this day and age, it is not good enough.
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I understand next week there will be a debate on CAMHS, which will provide an opportunity to air some of these issues. We have hired additional psychologists. We hired additional assistant psychologists as well in the past couple of years. We are recruiting. However, there is an Irish and international shortage of healthcare professionals, even in countries that pay far more than we can ever afford, such as Middle Eastern countries. That is something we need to bear in mind in how we design our services to make sure that they are prioritised and that referrals work.