The report found that care planning was 'either absent or of such poor quality as to be meaningless' in many CAMHS teams across the country.
A REVIEW INTO the provision of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the country has found that the UN Rights of the Child may have been breached for children with mental illness.
Speaking at the launch of today’s report, Finnerty said it was important to note that significant improvement has happened since the review began, including the appointment of a national clinical lead for CAMHS. “But this is not sustainable, and only addressed local problems. This has resulted in propping up a failing system that needs a radical overhaul.”
Alamy Stock Photo Mental Health Commission chief executive John Farrelly, inspector Dr Susan Finnerty, chairman Dr John Hillery and board member Tammy Donaghy launching the commissions review of Child and Adult Mental Health Services at their offices in Dublin. Alamy Stock Photo Risks were not identified across a number of Community Healthcare Organisations due to a lack of auditing and review. The report states that there were two processes for management and escalation of risk at team level, with “little or no information fed back on what actions were taken”.
Two-thirds of children in CAMHS teams had a key worker, but the report found that care planning was “either absent or of such poor quality as to be meaningless” in many teams.
Lack of electronic records Digital infrastructure was found to be absent in three CHOs apart from the use of Excel spreadsheets or Word documents, while only one CHO had electronic records. “But that doesn’t seem to have moved very swiftly and certainly in the year and four months that we’ve been doing this review, nothing has changed,” she said.
The vast majority of CAMHS teams were found to be significantly below recommended staffing levels, with some being 50% below staffing. Inspectors were informed that one team had 140 “lost” cases, while another team were attempting to identify an unknown number of cases that had been lost to follow up following a change in staffing.
The report also points out that vulnerable groups of children, including children in the Traveller Community, asylum seekers and refugees, had more difficulties accessing services. A comprehensive strategy for CAMHS and all other mental health services for children must be prepared and approved by the HSE Board “due to the seriousness of the concerns raised by Dr Maskey’s report and this report”.
In terms of access to CAMHS, the report states that all children and families should be able to access an urgent mental health assessment at a time of crisis that is provided “in a safe suitable environment and delivered by trained supported staff”. “If the strategy does happen and we are given the powers to monitor, I would provide assurances that this can be fixed and fixed fairly rapidly.”
“Obviously, that’s an issue for the Cabinet as a whole and for the relevant ministers. We do know that the Taoiseach has focused on youth poverty as an issue and this is part of that or very allied to that, so we will be looking at the Taoiseach to take a lead on this.”“We have 75 teams plus six specialist teams, and we’re trying to recruit people to fill 11 full-time equivalents on each of those teams and at the moment. That is not possible.
“We are genuinely sorry for anyone who has had a bad experience of our services. It is the responsibility of all in the HSE management, medical, nursing, allied health professionals and administrative staff to work together and change if we are to make services more responsive in both access and quality of outcome,” the statement said.
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