Eight-week wait for kids’ mental health appointments

Children and adolescents in Galway are waiting eight weeks to access mental health services – twice the HSE target wait.

Figures released by the HSE show that young people in Galway are waiting eight weeks for an appointment date with Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, and the service remains “some way off reaching the target” of four weeks as standard.

HSE figures show that in July, the longest wait for an appointment was in Tallaght at 13 weeks, followed by Cork and Meath at 10 weeks; Limerick, Clondalkin and North Fingal at 7 weeks; Dublin City and Donegal (6 weeks); Dublin 15 (4 weeks); Roscommon and Offaly (3 weeks) and Kerry (one week).

Sinn Féin councillor Mairéad Farrell said that the recruitment and retention crisis in the area of child and adolescent mental health services is one of the most worrying parts of the crisis gripping the health service.

“Nowhere is the recruitment and retention crisis in the health service having a more devastating impact than in the area of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

“In an area where there are 2,700 children waiting to be seen by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, there is a staggering 13 vacant consultant posts and a shortage of psychiatric nurses.

“Indeed, figures released to my colleague Louise O’Reilly TD – Sinn Féin’s Dáil Spokesperson on Health – by the HSE have shown that one third of children’s mental health beds are currently closed due to staff shortages. That means that of the 74 beds in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units across the State only 50 are actually open ‘due to staff shortages’.

“The HSE also revealed that there are significant wait times for counselling appointments with Jigsaw, the mental health service that provides vital supports to young people. While demand for the Jigsaw service continues to grow the provision of resources has not kept pace.

“As a result, in Galway at present there is a waiting time of eight weeks or 40 days for mental health services, twice the target they themselves have set of four working weeks.

“Every expert in child and adolescent mental health will tell you that early intervention is absolutely vital in avoiding enduring and worsening problems in the future.

“Yet, these figures reveal that if a child or young person seeks out care they are in all likelihood going to be faced with an extended waiting period which puts them and their mental health at a very serious risk.

“We know that when CAMHS and Jigsaw are able to assess and care for young people they do an excellent job with often extremely good results. However, currently, this is often not possible because of shortages in funding, neglect of the services by government, and the pervading recruitment and retention crisis in the health service.

“We need to see dedicated action in the area of mental health to attract new staff, to keep the excellent staff we have, to reopen closed beds, and to reduce waiting times. This is quite literally lifesaving treatment and it is currently not readily available for those that need it,” said Cllr Farrell.

The HSE said: “Jigsaw does not operate a ‘waiting list’ in the same way as some other services. Every young person who is referred and for whose needs the service is appropriate is offered and appointment date.

“The target is to offer every young person an appointment within 20 working days (four working weeks) of the date of referral. Jigsaw remain some way off reaching that target, despite considerable work in introducing initiatives to make most efficient use of clinical resources (for example a standardised appointment scheduling system).

“Jigsaw monitor activity levels to ensure that they are working to capacity and offering as many appointments as possible. In the year to date (January to June) they achieved 95% of their target in terms of number of appointments offered. However, demand for services continues to grow (47% increase in referrals compared with the same period last year),” the HSE said.

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