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Serious concerns about the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Ireland (CAMHS) have been reported repeatedly[1]. Yet we have seen no real reform. 

The HSE has issued an apology and acknowledged serious deficits in the service. Yet we have seen no real prioritisation to ensure the service is safe and fit for purpose.

• There are currently 11,000 children in Ireland awaiting appointments for primary care psychology, with over 4,000 of these children waiting over a year. [2]
• 4,500 children are waiting for CAMHS appointments and the number of children with medical referrals to CAMHS being refused has jumped by 12% since 2020.[3]
• The number of children from the ages of 10-14 years who are self-harming has increased indicating that the age of onset of self-harm is decreasing[4].
• In 2021, Ireland ranked in the bottom one-third of 41 countries in the EU/OECD for child mental health.[6] 

The children of this country are being consistently failed and their families left alone without adequate support at a time when they most need it. 

Children who manage to secure an appointment with CAMHS are often met with a service that lacks capacity to provide appropriate therapeutic interventions and with absent or poor care planning.

At a time when the Government is currently considering the reduction of the number of CAMHS teams across the country, we demand more. More for our children and more for the 21,000 children being referred to the service every year[7]. 

 “Our Children Deserve Better - Families for Reform of CAMHS” is a group of families across Ireland calling for urgent and real reform of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Our children are found in communities, groups and families across Ireland. 

We believe that Ireland is currently in breach of its obligation under Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that sets out that all children have a right to facilities, appropriate support, treatment and intervention to ensure the highest attainable standard of mental health and rehabilitation. 

We call on the Government to introduce the following reforms to CAMHS as a matter of urgency:

1. Address the clinical and administrative staffing shortage in CAMHS;
2. Remedy issues preventing access to CAMH Services (including lengthy waiting lists and lack of consistency around acceptance of referrals to the service);
3. Integrate the children’s mental health services with other children’s services;
4. End the practice of discrimination against autistic children in the provision of mental health services;
5. Increase availability of supports and the types of supports offered to promote a child-centred approach to recovery;
6. Increase the number of CAMHS-ID teams and ensure a clear referral path to access them;
7. Appoint a key worker and provide a clear Care Plan to every child under the remit of CAMHS;
8. Improve the communication and provision of information between CAMHS and families under their remit; 
9. Ensure the introduction of a transparent, accessible and safe review and complaints process; and
10. Ring-fenced funding for CAMHS

The reforms being called for are consistent with the numerous Government and HSE policies and a number of the reforms have already been committed to but never delivered on. We urge the Government to implement these reforms so that the prioritisation of children’s mental health services is not limited to ideals and rhetoric. 

For more information:

Website: https://www.families-for-reform-of-camhs.com/

Email: familiesforreformofcamhs@gmail.com

Twitter: @Reform_of_CAMHS

References:
 
[1] Mental Health Commission’s Interim Report of CAMHS (January 2023); Observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (February 2023); The Ombudsman for Children’s A Piece of My Mind Report; The Mental Health Commission’s 2017 Report; the 2016 Observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child; The Omb 
[2] Oireachtas Debate: 24/05/2023
[3] Oireachtas Debate: 24/05/2023
[4] https://www.nsrf.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/NSRF-National-Self-Harm-Registry-Ireland-annual-report-2020-Final-for-website.pdf
[5] https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-ss/suicidestatistics2019/
[6] Ireland was placed 26th out of 41 countries for child mental health: https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/Report-Card-16-Worlds-of-Influence-child-wellbeing.pdf
[7] PQ 18208/23