Possible nationwide CAMHS catastrophe needs to be audited

LEGAL representatives of north Kerry families whose children were failed by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), have revealed more than 200 others around the country have contacted them, voicing similar concerns.

This is unsettling, not just for its own sake, but because a promised review of the service appears not to have progressed very far, five months after the devastating Maskey Report showed how Co. Kerry children were exposed to grave harm through the misdiagnoses and misprescribing of medication.

Since the publication of the report, the Irish Mail On Sunday has detailed the cases of a teenage girl who suffered a relationship break-up after being prescribed anti-psychotic medication; children who have missed out on years of their education; and some diagnosed with ADHD who were prescribed Rispiridone, a drug typically used to treat bi-polar syndrome and schizophrenia.

In total, 227 children being treated by junior doctor David Kromer had been exposed to the risk of significant harm through his diagnoses and treatment of them, with 46 shown to have suffered actual significant harm.

The real underlying question is a simple one: if the Kerry cases occurred because of an apparent lack of supervision and oversight, why should we suppose that this pattern has not been repeated nationwide?

If there is a lack of resources across the country, it stands to reason there is also potentially a lack of supervision, which could see the Kerry scandal repeated in other locales.

The State cannot claim it was not warned. What happened in north Kerry was exposed, and it surely was expedient to complete an immediate audit of CAMHS elsewhere. Feigning ignorance simply will not wash.

A cynical person might suggest the foot dragging over the review could be because the HSE is afraid of getting answers it already knows, as seems to be the case given how many families nationwide have been in touch with the Kerry legal team.

A thorough and transparent national review must be conducted with urgency, before any more young people are harmed for life.

ILLEGALLY ADOPTED SUFFERED ENOUGH

THIS week’s apology by Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman to people who were illegally adopted, must be seen solely for what it is – merely a starting point.

There is a danger it might be interpreted as some sort of absolution for the grim past, when what is needed is for Government to take ownership of the State’s lamentable legacy. For Teresa Collins, who was seized from her mother at Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, soon after her birth in 1963, it felt like words without actions.

While she appreciates that the minister has good intentions, she highlights significant problems with the redress scheme, which will benefit only those who spent at least six months in Mother and Baby Homes, leaving around 24,000 ineligible for compensation, including Teresa herself.

Few acts by the State are judged as harshly as the continuing mistreatment of the estimated 58,000 survivors of the homes, mothers and their children alike. They have suffered enough already without the added uncertainty of the redress scheme and the two-tier system it has created.

Minister O’Gorman would do well to remember that the electorate takes a very dim view of any further pain being inflicted on those who already have carried so much of it throughout their lives.