*Clare CAMHS.
CLARE’S child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) is facing a crisis and at risk of collapse, a Shannon representative has warned.
In a proposal before Monday’s meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) said the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler (FF) needed to invest more resources and room capacity for Clare youth mental health services which is “facing a crisis”. She added, “We need intervention in Clare now before this service collapses.”
An internal survey by staff of Clare CAMHS has revealed that 94 percent felt the clinical environment was not suitable for the support of young people and is putting children supported by this service at risk. 88 percent of staff have said that they will be seeking alternative employment in the coming year while 94 percent rated morale as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.
On nine occasions in March of this year, an appointment was not offered by a clinician due to the non-availability of a clinical room. An appointment was postponed to a later time or day on eight different times while shorter appointments were given on a total of seven instances due to a lack of clinical space.
East Clare CAMHS has the lowest number of staff and is the only team without a permanent consultant psychiatrist, and of 12 staff in October 2022 only six still worked there in April.
More space is essential for the service to continue, Cllr McGettigan stressed. Poor staff retention and the shortage of clinical space is placing a risk to the children supported by the service. “Staff feel demoralised, we’re constantly telling people to talk about mental health but to who will they go to if the system keeps failing them”.
“We need intervention before the service collapses,” Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) maintained. Cllr Michael Begley (IND) said he was “shocked to say the least” upon hearing the figures. “We can see there is a deficiency in accessing services at local level,” Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) observed.
There is an onus to step up to protect young people, Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) stated, “The least we can do is ensure we don’t lose children for not getting the help they need”. Demand for services within CAMHS “has increased exponentially because of the impact of COVID,” Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) noted.
Intervening to force improvements was labelled as “very important” by Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG). “It’s sad to hear young people going through this anxiety more than ever before, it seems to me that young people are under a lot more pressure, it so difficult on families to monitor children,” Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) said.
Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) who sits on the HSE Regional Health Forum told the meeting he would put together a question for their next sitting to try obtain further information.
Clare TD, Violet-Anne Wynne (IND) raised the matter in Dáil Éireann in April and again on Thursday. “The issue has historical value in the sense that only in 2019 they were operating out of hotel rooms, which is completely inappropriate. I make the point as it shows a pattern of years of poor decisions and an unwillingness to prioritise mental health services for our youth and our future. CAMHS in Clare are split between two teams, one for east Clare and one for west Clare. One might assume east Clare appointments would be taken somewhere like Scariff and west Clare appointments would be taken somewhere like Kilrush. As the Minister of State well knows, that is not the case. The service has not even been planned sufficiently to ensure the safety of staff members or service users. Our youth in those areas face the added challenges of isolation, deprivation and the associated difficulties. The Government said that after Covid we would build back better but these individuals, our most vulnerable, are being left behind”.
