‘The time for excuses is over’
DEMAND Call for more resources for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
Councillors clashed in a heated debate over calls on the government to provide additional resources for local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
Independent Shane P. O’Reilly delivered a scathing rebuke to the motion tabled by Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley, criticising it as “disingenuous” having met with a senior government minister at the recent Ard Fheis and with Minister Stephen Donnelly in Killeshandra last week.
“This has been going on years,” said Cllr O’Reilly of the crisis facing CAMHS.
Cllr S.P. O’Reilly levelled the barbs having told last Monday’s monthly meeting that he was aware of a situation where a mother spent almost three days in A&E with her child, and cared for on an adult ward, before being discharged.
He said councillors had been pictured alongside Mary Butler, Minster for Older People and Mental Health, at the Ard Fheis. “Did anyone ask her about it then?”
He further queried whether problems with accessing the service had been raised with Minister Donnelly while in Killeshandra.
“It breaks my heart - children being dealt with in adult services. The time for excuses is over.”
Cllr Feeley had spoken about the requirement for suitably qualified persons to take up roles within CAMHS.
He said the referral system is no longer working, and the outcome was a “deeply upsetting” situation for children, parents and carers.
In particular Cllr Feeley highlighted staffing ratios in the west of the county, which includes services provided in Sligo-Leitrim also. He noted that the waiting list has spiked 35 per cent in the last 18 months and is showing no signs of slowing down.
“Throwing money at a problem is easy,” he suggested.
Fianna Fail’s Patricia Walsh seconded the motion, saying that people wait years to be seen by CAMHS. Many, she suggested, unfortunately “slip through the net” over time. “They’re too old for CAMHS and don’t get enough help as adults.”
There was support too from Fine Gael’s TP O’Reilly, Independent Brendan Fay and from Áine Smith (FF) who said it was a three to four week wait for a child displaying suicidal ideation to get an appointment.
“They’re under resourced,” she said of the service. “But these children need help.”
She fumed at one situation she was aware of one parent who was “told to stay off work to keep an eye on a child. Hide all the sharp objects. This shouldn’t be happening.”
To Cllr S.P. O’Reilly’s comments, Cllr Feeley responded that he and every other councillor would and should use “every opportunity to raise” such matters “with a minister or in the council chamber” to have them addressed “in a constructive way”.