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ONE THIRD OF the State’s child and adolescent psychiatric beds are not open for use because of staff shortages, according to new figures.
Responding to a parliamentary question posed by Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly, the HSE said the four Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units, based in Cork, Galway and Dublin, have a combined capacity of 74 beds.
At present, only 50 of these beds are open “due to staff shortages”. The HSE said it expects that these units will increase their capacity in September with recruitment of graduate nurses and continued efforts to recruit consultant psychiatric positions in two of the units.
There are currently 13 vacant CAMHS consultant psychiatric posts across the country in total.
The HSE also revealed that wait times for a Jigsaw counselling appointment are 13 weeks in Tallaght, Dublin, and ten weeks in counties like Cork and Meath. Wait times are lower in Offaly and Roscommon – three weeks for each – and just one week in Kerry.
“Every young person who is referred and for whose needs the service is appropriate is offered an appointment date. The target is to offer every young person an appointment within 20 working days (4 working weeks) of the date of referral,” the HSE said.
Jigsaw monitor activity levels to ensure that they are working to capacity and offering as many appointments as possible. In the year to date (Jan to June) they achieved 95% of their target in terms of number of appointments offered. However, demand for services continues to grow (47% increase in referrals compared with the same period last year).
O’Reilly who is Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on health said the recruitment and retention crisis in our health service is” having a devastating impact on child and adolescent psychiatry”.
This is an area where there are 2,700 children waiting to be seen by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services yet there is a staggering 13 vacant consultant posts and a shortage of psychiatric nurses.
“Every expert in Child and Adolescent Mental Health will tell you that early intervention is absolutely vital in avoiding enduring and worsening problems in the future,” she said.
“Every week that a young person with a mental health problem goes untreated is doing serious damage.”
The party’s spokesperson on mental health Pat Buckley also expressed concern about wait times. “When a child or young person seeks out care they are in all likelihood going to be faced with extended waiting periods which are simply unacceptable and put them and their mental health at a very serious risk.”
When CAMHS and Jigsaw are able to assess and care for young people they do an excellent job with often very good results. This is not possible because of shortages which have been created by years of neglect of the services and very little action to resolve it.
It cannot be stressed enough the human cost this neglect is causing today and into the future for many young people, their families and their communities. This is quite literally life saving treatment and it is not available for those that need it.
Additional CAMHS in-patient capacity will be provided in the new National Children’s Hospital with 20 beds in 2022 and an additional 10 forensic CAMHS unit is currently under construction in St Ita’s, due to open in 2020.
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Austerity in the HSE appears to be more important than the lives of our children. How many millions were spent on the P.R. team for Leo?
@Peadar117: Very poor trolling effort.
@Gary: Trolling best of luck with the rest of your goy im existence
@Peadar117: what drugs are you on, pal?
Look,
Reporting on these situations really needs to get tougher in my opinion.
It’s all very well to report on the easy stuff, the incredible facts which are devastating for the children and their families in this case but spend a bit of time digging into the issues please.
Are the staff shortages in this instance due to a refusal by the HSE to employ staff, a lack of suitably qualified people out there, the employment packages on offer not fit for purpose, or the government not funding the department adequately?
Let’s see the real reasons for our nations children being let down.
@Martin Stapleton: Well said and concise Martin. Media in this country so often drip feed statistics to the point it becomes an acceptable norm by the public, but fail to investigate and report the real cause. When were these vacancies identified/advertised, do they replace resignations – if so, why are professionals leaving etc..
@Martin Stapleton: https://www.irishpsychiatry.ie/category/classified-ads/
There’s lots of jobs posted. But on quick glance a lot of the consultant posts are temporary locum positions.
A good friend of mine is mother to two severly handicapped boys. The youngest (5yrs) is autistic, and is unique in the world. He is the only one who has his chromosome disorder. Which gives rise to many physical problems. Her eldest (13) has cerebal palsy and is also autistic, he now has suspected bi-polar disorder. This needs urgent diagnosis. She can’t get an appointment for him. The HSE who she battles on a daily basis will do nothing for her or her kids. They won’t even give her the much needed respite she’s entitled to. Yet she works, has gone to college at night, has missed loads of it, but has never failed one single assignment.
She knows of other mothers who have kids with problems, they are like her, are fighting a losing battle for the help they are entitled to.
Even at capacity at 74 CAMHS beds is a shocking low number for the whole country.
Absolute disgrace, if we do not look after chlidren with mental issues, these issues will manifest into more serious problems and they will end up a shell of what they could of been. It sicken’s me to think there is able bodied spongers getting looked after day n day out but the “genuine” vunreable of society do not.
@Jonathan Whelan: Nothing to do with “able bodied spongers” it’s FG’s neoliberal dogma that’s the problem. Any public service has to be brought to the point of uselessness. Public services have no place in Leo’s neoliberal utopia.
Of course if they can get you to blame your neighbour and not them, so much the better.
@Jonathan Whelan: After the thanklessness experienced by those who tried to help people with problems in the past it is not surprising that workers and volunteers are hard to find. The Magdalene women volunteers(nuns) were blamed for the preexisting problems for those they tried to help.
And this isn’t even a time of austerity. We’re screwed next time round.
Simon doesn’t care. He’s too busy ranting at bishops
WHAT A SHAMEFULL COUNTRY THIS HAS BECOME
Truly pathetic situation. Not good enough for the people of Ireland.
The public cannot be shocked however at the lack of consultants and other grades of doctors working in the service…
Until the nation wakes up to address what is the national health crisis, the situation will continue to deteriorate
@Disgruntled Doctor: It’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Last year there were 14 higher training scheme posts up for grabs in child psych, with only 6 applicants. Seems an anomaly when you look at how competitive most other training schemes are.
http://www.medicalcareers.ie/about/specialty-grades/competition-ratios-201718/
@Ró: then we need to bring people in from abroad who are qualified to do the job! If our lot doesn’t want to do it, screw them and give the jobs to foreigners!
@Matt Beaumont: I agree. The example I gave though reflects Irish and non-Irish applicants. Everyone who applied got a job. I just find it interesting how a job like that (the last step en route to a consultant post) has such a poor uptake, at home and abroad, in what is usually a highly competitive career.
@Matt Beaumont: why don’t you fill one of the posts? Bet I know why not…
Another gormless commentator. Good luck with that plan
Closing wards, due to staff shortages that result in someone taking their own life because he or she can’t get Help. Someone please explain how a Minister can feel comfortable to be in Government and watch our people ‘s Mental Health decline.
@Carol Fitzpatrick: it’s all well and good that the government are blamed but let’s face it the public wanted consultants pay cut and they got their wish. Now the chickens are coming home to roost and posts can’t be filled. This is a problem of having populist politicians and no forward planning
Truly pathetic situation. Not good enough for the people of Ireland.
The public cannot be shocked however at the lack of consultants and other grades of doctors working in the service…
Until the nation wakes up to address what is the national health crisis, the situation will continue to deteriorate
Maybe Leo could talk to the Pope about it.
Leo “ we are powerless to do anything”
i made a very unoffensive reply to peadair117 , several times in the past 15 minutes , and none of them have shown up yet ???
??
@RJ.Fallon: No need, the truth of d situation is ridiculed and the Catholic/only solution is s–t on again. Psychiatry stays perfectly intact on nd on till d break of dawn !!
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