HSE children's mental health services "unacceptable"

Child and adolescent mental health services in the HSE have been labelled as “unacceptable” by the chief executive of the Mental Health Commission, with some suicidal children waiting 50 days to be seen by professionals.

The Mental Health Commission published separate reports on the nine regions following a major report on the entire service last month.

The reports set out strengths of each region, but also the challenges being faced across the country.

🚨 CAMHS REPORT PUBLISHED🚨

The Inspector of Mental Health Services has said that she cannot currently provide an assurance to all parents in Ireland that their children have access to a safe, effective and evidence-based mental health service.

👉 https://t.co/a2Ib51NVoQ pic.twitter.com/trWz5BzmHB

— Mental Health Commission Ireland (@MHCIreland) July 26, 2023

Chief executive John Farrelly told RTE’s Morning Ireland  that there was 45 areas of concern in relation to clinical or quality issues that could not wait.

These concerns included consultants working part-time and children left without prescription renewals. “Making sure that children were receiving their care, that the care was clinically safe and that we could not wait for a strategy to ensure they were safe,” said Farrelly.

“There was a number of items like that which were escalated. In one area that was 24 items escalated, but in four of the areas, we didn't need to do this. And what that brings us back to the challenges and these are the systemic issues across the country.”

Mr Farrelly acknowledged that issued varied across Ireland and that there was still “a lot of high quality work going on”.

“What we've done is we've identified the key issues and like any good process, you identify the issues, you're not afraid to look at the issues and then you put a process in place to fix it.”

Anyone struggling can call Samaritans for free on 116 123, email [email protected] or visit their website at www.samaritans.org.