Admissions to child psychiatric services falls by 40%

Kenneth Fox

Psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and mental health campaigners are calling for “urgent” action to address a continuing shortage of child inpatient psychiatric beds.

HSE figures supplied to the Irish Examiner show a 40 per cent drop in admissions to the four public Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) approved centres last year due to staff shortages.

The numbers fell from 361 in 2021 to 218 in 2022 — and there have been just 98 admissions so far this year.

The continuing problem comes from a decision over a year ago to cut the number of operational beds due to persistent staff shortages.

Psychiatric nurses warn the situation is “not sustainable” and that it needs to be “urgently addressed”.

The country’s psychologists said it is “unacceptable” that children whose condition is so serious that it requires inpatient care cannot access it.

In May 2022, the HSE cut the number of operational beds at the largest Camhs unit, Linn Dara in Dublin, from 24 to 13.

This brought the total number of beds across the four approved centres to 51, down from 72.

The cutbacks were due to be reversed by September 2022, but remain in place over a year after they were announced.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) said that, according to its estimates, there are only 43 beds in operation, not 51.

It said updated HSE plans to reopen the Linn Dara beds this September seem “unlikely” given ongoing recruitment and staffing difficulties.

In a statement, the HSE said the continuing reduction in operational beds in Linn Dara is due to “high levels of nursing staff vacancies”, but said there continues to be a “concerted recruitment campaign”.

St Joseph’s has seen its operational beds reduce from 12 in 2022 to eight this year, which the HSE said is due to staff vacancies.