Sharp rise in child mental health target breaches in Western Trust ‘shocking’

SDLP Councillor Rory Farrell was speaking as he highlighted a four-fold increase in the number of times targets stipulating that a child should be seen within nine week have been missed.

Speaking after officials from Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services addressed the Council’s July Health & Community committee, the Ballyarnett Councillor said: “Ministerial targets state that children should not wait longer than nine weeks to access mental health services. The Western Trust is missing this target and the number of children waiting over nine weeks has quadrupled in the last year. That is a shocking and shameful statistic and one that must be addressed.

“The figure for April 2019 was 116, but the figure for this April was 488 - that’s a four-fold increase. The impact of COVID may have affected these statistics, but the upward trend existed well before the outbreak. In January 2019, 86 children and young people were waiting over nine weeks to access the service but the figure this January was 329.”

Mr Farrell claimed: “The Western Trust is failing to meet its targets and it is failing each and every one of the 488 children and young people waiting over nine weeks to access mental health services.”

Representatives from the Trust have said that a rise in the number of children being referred, problems around staff recruitment and retention, staff reappointments and COVID-19 were contributing factors along with under-investment in child mental health services.

Colr. Farrell added: “Mental health is a very well documented issue in our city. Early intervention is key and the Western Trust and the Department of Health should act quickly and decisively to address the spiralling waiting lists for children displaying mental health issues.”

Speaking in response to identical concerns raised by Colr. Farrell at the Council meeting, Kevin Duffy, Assistant Director Community & Public Health, said the loss of ten staff to the Trust’s new multi-disciplinary teams has been “very, very significant”, but added that a review of services was now being looked at.

Councillors were told that the multi-disciplinary CAMHS team consists of just 42 staff for the whole the Trust area, with a number of vacant posts at present. While there was a 64% drop in referrals through April and May during lockdown, referrals in June increased.

CAMHS referrals come predominantly from GPs, and in the year to April 2020, 2,107 referrals were accepted with 1,200 active cases at present.

In the year to April 2019, referrals had risen by 36% on the previous year.

The CAMHS service deals with children presenting with a range of mental health conditions and issues, including suicidal ideation, anxiety, eating disorders, drug and alcohol services, ADHD, gender dysphoria, and deals with both crisis and non-urgent cases.

Deirdre Mahon, Director of Women and Children’s Services, said it has been very challenging to recruit and retain psychiatrists for CAMHS.

Speaking about the review she added: “We can’t just keep doing the same thing and expecting different results so we really are thinking about how we need to develop different pathways for those children that maybe are really clinically unwell, and then there are those children presenting with emotional difficulties who maybe don’t need a psychiatrist but need a different skills mix.”

Speaking about government funding she said: “We have little investment in this area... Sometimes children are at the bottom of the heap when funding is allocated.”

*Children can contact Childline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 0800 1111 for any issue or by visiting www.childline.org.uk in confidence.

*The Lifeline helpline can be contacted for free on 0808 808 8000 in confidence.

*The Samaritans can be contacted on 02871 265511 or Freephone 116 123 in confidence.