Parents will address Seanad
CRISIS IN CHILD MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES WORSENS AS NEW FIGURES SHOW LITTLE TO NO ACCESS TO PSYCHOLOGY
THE Sligo campaign group Our Voice for their Future travelled to Leinster House to meet with Senator Marie Devine to outline the crisis facing the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in the region.
Senator Marie Devine is the Seanad spokesperson on Mental Health and she has been doing research into child mental health services across Ireland. The Sinn Fein Senator relayed that mental health services for children in the North West are worse than anywhere else in the country.
“Statistics show that Sligo has the longest waiting lists, worst staffing levels and the entire system is in a crisis situation,” explained Yvonne Rainey, spokeswoman for Our Voice for Their Future.
“These research findings were revealed to us by Senator Devine, but we already knew first hand how bad things are here,” she added.
The group welcomed the opportunity for face to face talks in the Seanad last Wednesday.
Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny, who was instrumental in organising the meeting, said afterwards:“I have been in contact with this group for some time and know the enormous difficulties they face as parents and friends of children and adolescents with mental health difficulties or autism or both.
“However, listening again to the three mothers explaining their situation and the circumstances of Sligo CAMHS, I have to admit to feeling shocked all over again.
“There are many problems in the CAMHS but above all there is a problem with staffing. The service needs psychologists, psychiatrists, speech and language therapists and psychiatric nurses. There are huge waiting lists and little has been done to shorten them over the past six months.
“Meanwhile, the custom-built respite facility opened in 2009, has been transformed into a residential unit and the home help type alternative offered to families involves paying for public liability insurance.
“The situation is dire and although the parents involved in Our Voice Their Future are wonderful people who are caring full-time and now campaigning too, no one should be under such pressure because they have a child who is ill or has autism.”
Deputy Kenny concluded: “I promised, as did Senator Devine, to do my utmost to meet the new minister of state for mental health services, Jim Daly, and to appeal to him to contract the necessary staff and provide the adequate funding to remedy this crisis.”
Yvonne Rainey said: “It was a great meeting. They want to work with us towards solutions to some of the problems. I put together a simple leaflet on one page outlining all of the services for parents, from occupational therapy to autism services, this leaflet has all of the necessary information in one place and it lets you know if you can self-refer. For any concerned parent starting out on their journey to find supports for their child, it is invaluable.”
Fellow parent and campaigner Michelle Fletcher agreed: “This should be in every GP surgery in Sligo. It is very lonely for parents starting out, not knowing where to go next.”
Our Voice for their Future is now concerned about psychology waiting lists in the region as Michelle explains: “Psychology has fallen apart. We have no early intervention psychologist for under 6’s, no school age psychologists. Under CAMHS there should be 3 psychologists and we have discovered that there are none.”
HSE figures show that in 2016 204 people were on a list to see a psychologist in Sligo. By 31st May 2017 179 were still on that same waiting list.
Michelle explains: “Parents are getting letters saying it will be at least 18 months before a child can see a psychologist. One mother who’s child has suspected Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder got a letter saying ‘As you are probably aware there is no school age psychologist in the area and I now believe that we will not be getting one for some time.’ The same parent was directed towards Monaghan for assessment and diagnosis of ASD.”
Other figures just revealed show that only 28 out of 87 priority cases highlighted in March to be treated under CAMHS have been seen. The waiting list for CAMHS stands at 318 children.
Our Voice for Their Future has been asked to address the Seanad in September by Senator Marie Devine and the group is looking forward to the opportunity. A spokesperson for the HSE was unavailable for comment before going to press.