Call for action on child mental health services in Laois

Major changes needed to reform the mental health services for children throughout Laois, a  Sinn Féin Local Representative has said.

Graiguecullen’s Aaron Kelly described the lack of capacity in youth mental health services as shocking. The recent Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services report on CAMHS has shown a crisis that must be acted on immediately, he insisted. 

He said the Mental Health Commission found a complete lack of governance throughout the agency resulting in an insecure and inefficient provision of services to our young people. Several issues arose throughout the report in relation to management, funding, and recruitment within CAMHS.

“What is even more concerning is the so called ‘lost children’. These are patients with open cases in CAMHS after being referred, but who have failed to receive any follow-up appointments to review their medication and monitor their prescriptions. It is a complete injustice to think that there are children out there taking prescription medication for their mental health that may not be suitable for them in their current state of mind or alternatively there are children out there in need of prescriptions that do not have them. This could lead to disastrous consequences for these young people in the future and far more care is needed by our government,” he said. 

“We often hear talks with young people about the importance of reaching out if they are struggling with their mental health. The problem is that when these young people are reaching out for help, there is a complete lack of resources made available to them and this is down to a lack of funding and provision of services by the government,” said Mr Kelly. 

He called for an urgent strategy to address the issue in relation to these so called ‘lost children’. 

He said his party has proposed a key plan which is needed to reform CAMHS and provide high-quality mental health supports to children. 

“We are calling for ring-fenced funding for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services within the health budget. We are also calling for the development of national standards for monitoring the use of antipsychotic medications by young people. We also need to see an increase in education and training places in higher education to give us a pipeline of staff for our CAMH services. These measures will ensure safe staffing levels are delivered,” he said. 

He said the government must urgently consider these proposals. 

“Children in County Laois and across the state must get access to high-quality mental health supports when they need it. We cannot afford to ‘lose’ our children to mental health or to the lack of services available to them,” he remarked. 

“Our young people matter. Their mental health matters. We need immediate government action without any excuses or further delays,” Mr Kelly added.