James Lawless TD has criticised the amount of time it can take for a patient to access Mental Health Services in Kildare
James made the comments after his Parliamentary Question on the mean time a patient might wait for a Child and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS) appointment was found to be 3 to 6 months for a non urgent routine appointment.
James said, “This can sometimes be longer depending on the demand for emergency or urgent appointments. This is despite an extra CAMHS community team being established in the Kildare area since 2017 to deal with population growth.”
“The continuing difficulties with the CAMHS service represent a real failure by the Government and the HSE to get to grips with the problem. Nationally the service has scarcely over half the required staff and until that is resolved, long waiting lists will remain.”
“It is frustrating that mental health services for children in Kildare are making little to no progress. Time is of the essence when dealing with vulnerable young people and they are being failed by a Government which has shown an inability to make the necessary improvements to youth mental health services.”