More than 100 young people waiting for primary care psychology service in Cork for four years

MORE than 100 young people in Cork have been waiting for more than four years for primary care psychology services, while almost 1,300 have been waiting for services for over two years.

In response to a parliamentary question from the Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, the HSE has indicated that in a four-week period to the end of May this year, the total number of young people on the Cork/Kerry primary care psychology waiting list grew from 4,785 to 5,009, with 4,343 of these young people living in Cork.

The North Lee and South Lee services are in the greatest difficulty, with the numbers of young people on waiting lists totalling 1,531 and 1,632, respectively.

Across the four Cork HSE regions, 105 young people have been waiting for services for four to five years, while 297 are waiting for between three and four years, and 893 are waiting between two and three years.

“It’s clear from these figures that waiting lists in the Cork/Kerry primary care psychology services are completely out of control,” Ms Cairns told The Echo.

The HSE has not yet answered a separate parliamentary question which was submitted by Ms Cairns on May 14, asking whether the waiting list figures for the Cork/Kerry primary care psychology services are representative of the situation nationally.

“After I raised this in the Dáil a month ago, as my colleague Deputy Róisín Shortall did in the Oireachtas health committee, we still don’t know from the HSE whether these figures are typical nationally, or represent a crisis that is particular to Cork/Kerry,” she said.

“The fact that 105 young people in the Cork/Kerry services are waiting four to five years for intervention is deeply shocking. We need the minister for mental health to take the situation in hand and devise an urgent plan to address this crisis in primary care psychology services in Cork/Kerry.”

Primary care psychology services are for young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties, while Camhs teams serve young people with moderate to severe difficulties. Despite the Camhs service receiving intense media coverage, waiting lists for primary care psychology services are five times higher than those for Camhs.

A HSE spokesperson told The Echo they acknowledge that the waiting list for the service has grown further in recent weeks.

“The demand for the service continues to grow and we are still facing staffing challenges,” they stated. “We sincerely regret the waiting times for both primary care psychology and for Camhs, and we are working to reduce both.

“We accept the impact on children waiting for appointments at both services, and we are very aware of the importance to young people and their families [of] timely access to services. We are facing challenges in providing timely access due to both a very significant increase in the number of referrals, as well as staffing challenges.

“More than half of the funded posts in the service are vacant and recruitment of psychologists is currently very difficult.

“We would like to reassure parents and families that referrals to primary care psychology service are triaged as they are received, so that children are directed to the most appropriate service.

“If a child’s needs increase while they are waiting for an appointment, then their family or caregiver should speak to their GP in case a referral to another service is needed.”