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Pringle: Government must regulate CAMHS under the Mental Health Act as a matter of urgency
- Updated: 26th February 2024
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, has called for the urgent regulation of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) under the Mental Health Act 2001, and for reform of CAMHS.
Deputy Pringle said: “Families for Reform of CAMHS, an advocacy and support group that includes more than 900 families across the country, have been calling for real and urgent reform of CAMHS.
“I support their call and call on Government to make this regulation a priority for our country’s children who need these services and have been failed by this Government.
“In a report published last summer, then-Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Susan Finnerty, said she could not provide assurances to all parents or guardians in Ireland that their children ‘have access to a safe, effective and evidence-based mental health service’. Among other recommendations in her report, Dr Finnerty called for the immediate reform of CAMHS structures and independent regulation of CAMHS by the Mental Health Commission.
“The scathing report detailed the urgent need for these recommendations to be implemented, but shockingly, we have not seen that same sense of urgency from this Government.
“Regulation under the Act would allow the Mental Health Commission to work with stakeholders and clinical staff to develop standards and rules for the provision of CAMHS community services across the country and enable the Commission to monitor implementation of those recommendations.
“I have heard from a Donegal parent who has been seeking urgent services for her young child for a year and has been waiting for a first appointment with CAMHS for months. Concerned parents and guardians in Donegal and across the country are doing all they can to secure vital services for their children who need them.
“This Government must stand with parents, guardians and children and take steps for the regulation and reform of CAMHS as a matter of urgency,” he said.
