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A SOLICITOR REPRESENTING families impacted by the Kerry CAMHS scandal has said they will be making complaints to gardaí.
A review of the care of more than 1,300 children under the South Kerry CAMHS, published this week, found that 46 youngsters suffered significant harm.
The HSE report found that hundreds of children received “risky” treatment by a doctor working in the child and adolescent mental health service.
Yesterday, Gardaí confirmed they have received the final report into the HSE-run South Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and are considering it in the context of whether there are grounds to commence a criminal investigation.
Gardaí said they are “fully aware” of the impact the report has had on a number of families in Kerry and advised if any parent of a young person who may have suffered harm wishes to contact gardaí, they can either email KY.CAMHSKerry@garda.ie or call their local garda station.
Speaking today, solicitor Padraig O’Connell said he welcomed the message from gardaí and confirmed complaints will be made.
He told RTÉ’s Saturday with Katie Hannon programme: “I’d like to welcome the intervention of the gardaí in the matter because clearly there will be complaints to gardaí.
“I do not want to prejudice any aspect by commenting further on that but I can be absolutely certain that there will be complaints to the gardaí.”
O’Connell, who said he represents approximately 50 families, said they “continue to suffer” from the scandal.
He told RTÉ that he also sought an apology from the Taoiseach, who has promised he will pursue a “non-adversarial” mechanism to deal with Kerry mental health services.
Minister of State Damien English told the programme that he supports the Taoiseach’s plan and said it is “difficult” to assess the ongoing costs to some of the families affected, but that there won’t be a cap on costs.
“We have to agree some way to be able to judge that, measure that and put a system in place to make sure those costs are met,” the Fine Gael TD said.
Speaking on the same programme, Dr Kieran Moore, who resigned from his role in the Wexford CAMHS team in 2018 citing burnout, said he has found the controversy upsetting and distressing.
“Overall in terms of structures and how we do this, we are not doing a good job. We’re failing and we’ve known this for years,” he said, “We pretend to have governance structures . . . We actually don’t.”
Social Democrat co-leader Catherine Murphy agreed that the matter should “not be something that ends up in the courts” or in front of a tribunal.
She added that “accountability needs to be built in the system” to prevent future scandals taking place.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin is bringing a motion to the Dáil next week regarding the protection of children’s mental health services.
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy told the programme that it will urge the government to address the growing crisis in mental health services for children and young people bringing a motion to the Dáil next week.
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Here we go again! Govt distracting us from the real issues by already talking about compensation. Is there no end to the lack of accountability these people can get away with. Mary Butler and Stephen Donnelly should be forced to resign. SD is gone AWOL as usual and MB is blaming everyone bar herself. Every time this happens I hope that this is going to be the time when people are going to be held accountable and every time we are shocked. Affected families usually say “that I didn’t want to see this happen to anyone else” so this time please insist on people being held fully accountable. Please!!!
@Barrycelona: this is the only thing that they are capable of – shutting the victims down with taxpayers money left and right due to their complete and absolute incompetence.
@John Johnes: I see my comment was taken down from last night’s board that u commented on,
@Barrycelona: SD was not in office when this happened. Looks like the Spoofer Meister was in Health at the time. This looks like a case of criminal negligence, so its good that the Gardai get involved. It’s bad that they are so inefficient that it will take them years to investigate and present a file to the DPP.
What happened the Doctor involved? Any sanctions from the medical Council etc.
@Dave Byrne: Problem was the system, there was no supervising consultant – if there had been these issues would have been identified and the trainee doctor trained.
@Dave Byrne: He was a junior Doctor left unsupervised with no one to back him up its very easy to scapegoat, its his chain of command who should be reported to medical committee ,He should not have been given that responsibility in the first place,and its horrendous what happened to the children, because he wasn’t trained for the role
@Owen Kirwan: one would have to question why the pharmacist didn’t spot over medication for a child? Surly they are trained to spot these things.
Way to go. Serious issues here
@Great White Hope: We need a report into CAMHS nationally too.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: I agree a young person I know had a horrendous experience in the Cork one..
A Consultant Psychiatrist Kieran Moore hit the nail on the head today on the radio today when he pointed out that the only section of the HSE that do not have a regulating body are the Management. When Doctors make mistakes they have to face the Medical Council but the Managers are answerable to no one. All we hear is systems failures . Who set up the systems we never know.
Also he said people with Mental Health difficulties are put on waiting lists without ever been seen . This does not happen in any other area e.g Mental Health Services are in a mess. The few Consultant Psychiatrists are expected to manage far too many cases and are overworked . They need more resources.
I think historic review of CAMHS facilities. Notably CAMHS Galway is needed. Dealt with them in the early 2000s, nightmare. Also some very sketch, authoritarian behaviour… Have heard stories of them shouting parents down if they suggested anything other than what CAMHS had decided on could be going on, going so far as to misdiagnose and put down what turned out to be a physiological disorder to a psychological one for many years in one story I heard.
This has to stop, people should not be made to feel worse when mental health issues arise, not one person is not directly or indirectly affected by these type of issues. This “government” like many before if not all have failed with their so called strategies on mental health. We all deserve better, we should all pressure politicians and local reps to do something worth while that is based on a holistic approach not a ‘drug first wait and see’ nonsensical approach. Covid has put young and old on edge and the level of stress is palpable, this government and its departments need to face the legacy of their poor mental health approach and the oncoming tidal wave of Covid related stresses on the population. We deserve real leadership on these issues or they should go. The time is now.
@Epgenetics29 Declan Christoph: it’s not just mental health. We are 748 consultants short, and that’s just to bring us back to our normal which is way below the number of consultants per head of population everywhere else in Europe. Every where we are short a consultant there is some unqualified ‘locum’ or an unsupervised NCHD filling in.
This is also happening to many adults across the country. Psych drugs have horrible side effects. Hope they all recover. Psychiatrists are not wizards and they must feel alot of pressure to cure people in short time slots. Don’t think the medical model fits for mental health.
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