Concern over mental health services for children

An Oireachtas committee was told the waiting list for Child and Adolescent Mental Health services is too high

An Oireachtas committee has heard that a third of children and adolescents in need of mental health services up to June this year, were admitted to adult wards.

The Director of Mental Health Reform told the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning that despite the Mental Health Code of Practice stating no child should be admitted into an adult ward outside exceptional circumstances, of 158 admissions, 53 were to adult units.

Dr Shari McDaid said this was "too many". She also told the committee that the waiting list for Child and Adolescent Mental Health services is too long. By July this year, 2,757 children were waiting to be seen by CAMS. Dr McDaid said that while that represented a 2% decrease on the previous year, "there are a large number of children waiting to be seen".

She also criticised the Health Service Executive, saying it had been very slow in deciding where to spend the money allocated to Mental Health Services, noting that it decided where to spend the 2014 allocation in September of this year.

Dr McDaid said it is the third year the decision on spending has been delayed, and said she hoped the HSE would be quicker with that decision in 2015.

View here