As the Deputy will be aware, I recently commenced a series of visits to all HSE Regional Health Areas to meet with the Regional Executive Officers and their staff to focus on improvements to all aspects of Youth Mental Health care, to identify areas where increased activity is needed, and also areas of innovative and positive service delivery.
I conveyed in my meeting with HSE Dublin and North East that reducing the waiting list for CAMHS is one of my main priorities as Minister for Mental Health. The Programme for Government makes several commitments relating to CAMHS, including a commitment to providing additional resources to reduce CAMHS waiting lists.
The HSE Dublin and North East region had 1,050 children waiting to be seen by CAMHS as of 31st May last, which represented 24% of the national waiting list for CAMHS. Of most concern to me was that 88 children in the HSE DNE region were waiting more than 18 months to be seen. In total, 216 children were waiting more than 12 months, and I strongly indicated that this was unacceptable to me, as Minister.
The HSE Dublin and North East Region has been allocated €720,000 in Waiting List Initiative funding for CAMHS for 2025. This funding is intended to reduce the waiting list by 300 cases. Following my visit however, I was concerned that this funding was not being targeted to the teams with the most challenging waiting lists, or to teams with children who were waiting longest. As Minister, it is important to me that when I secure additional resources for specific purposes that they are used to achieve the desired outcomes.
Furthermore, I was concerned about vacancies in CAMHS Louth/Meath, and also vacancies in CAMHS Dublin North City and Dublin North City West. I understand from my visit that there are historical challenges with recruitment in certain areas of the region. However, I asked the local HSE to prioritise the advertising and recruitment of these posts as a matter of urgency and to ensure that the proper systems are in place to fill routine vacancies in a timely manner in the future.
Arising from my visit, I subsequently wrote to the Regional Executive Officer in HSE Dublin and North East and asked her to ensure that:
• intensive support will be provided to the teams with the highest waiting lists to support them to eliminate waiting times more than 12 months.
• that ‘Wait List Initiative’ funding will be used to target the removal of children waiting the longest (i.e. more than 12 months).
• that CAMHS vacancies in the region will be prioritised for immediate recruitment, and that vacant/cover/backfill posts will be prioritised for CAMHS on an ongoing basis to avoid capacity issues contributing to wait list growth.
• that within 3 months of my visit no child or young person will be waiting longer than 18 months in any CAMHS team in the region.
• that within 6 months no child or young person will be waiting longer than 12 months in any CAMHS team.
• that the waiting list for children and young people for psychological interventions in primary care will be addressed as a priority to ensure timely access to interventions, and to reduce the pressure these wait times are having on the CAMHS service.
I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible on the operational service improvements planned or now underway for the HSE Dublin and North East area arising from my recent visit there.
In the broader context, I have adopted fundamentally the same approach on the visits I have undertaken to-date to other Regional Health Areas and this will continue for my visits to remaining RHAs over the near future. In addition, the Department of Health in conjunction with the HSE will continue to regularly monitor progress on the Mental Health component of the HSE Annual Service Plan 2025.
