The Government continues to provide inadequate mental health service for children

A report card issued by the Children’s Rights Alliance revealed that the Government isn’t meeting its targets of providing children with adequate mental health care.

 

The report card, which was published yesterday, gave the Government an grade ‘E’, down from a ‘D’ last year. This is evidence that the standard of mental health care for children is not improving and is still an issue that should be dealt with.

 

The results also revealed that, since the adolescent in-patient units had not met the standards for children last year, 68 children were admitted to adult psychiatric units. This is an alarming number of patients because it is above the HSE’s target of fewer than 50 teens.

 

The report states: “This poor performance reflects the failure of government to ring-fence the previously promised €35m in Budget 2014.”

 

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Children’s Right Alliance gave the Government such a low grade.

 

Based on the continued placement of youngsters in psychiatric units for adults, the report highlights the number of vacancies within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) teams.

 

We hope that the issue of mental health within youngsters will be resolved soon.