Sinn Féin Senator Pádraig MacLochlainn has labelled as ‘disgraceful’ official figures released to Sinn Féin which reveal that across all of the HSE regions, Donegal has the most patient waiting for twelve months or more for appointments to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
Senator MacLochlainn says that the data also shows that Donegal has the second highest number of total patients on the service’s waiting lists, despite the county having the third lowest population of all the HSE’s Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs).
Senator MacLochlainn said:“These appalling figures which have been released to Sinn Féin by the HSE shine a light on the critical issue of gaps in mental health services and supports for children and young people, including staff shortages in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
Senator Pádraig MacLochlainn
“The waiting figures reveal that here in CHO Area 1, which covers Donegal, we have the second highest number of patients on waiting lists across the State, despite having the third lowest population of all such regions.
“Worse still is that Donegal also has the highest number of patients in the state waiting for a CAMHS appointment for 12 months or more – this is simply disgraceful.
“It’s not surprising however that this county finds itself in this position as last year, the area only had 49.6% of the CAMHS teams staffing as recommended in a vision for change, which clearly illustrates that staffing levels are a real issue for the service.
“As Sinn Féin has repeatedly been highlighting, the area of Mental health is one in which successive governments have continuously failed in their duty to provide any level of adequate service provision for service users.
“Access to mental health services for children and young people is clearly severely restricted when we consider the waiting lists that currently exist, and the fact that Donegal is yet again making headlines for all the wrong reasons is simply not good enough.
“Only last month, my colleague Pearse Doherty was forced to raise with the Minister in the Dáil the fact that here in this county, following the vacating of a Counselling post locally, that there was no Addiction counselling services for under 18s anywhere in Donegal, this despite the fact that the HSE knew for weeks that the post would become vacant when it did.
“Clearly, the Minister needs to take action to address staffing and service issues here in Donegal to ensure that these waiting lists are reduced and that service users here in this county are no longer discriminated against because what we have witnessed to date is simply unacceptable.”
