The dearth of psychiatric services for children and adolescents across the State will be outlined in stark terms today in a report published by the Irish College of Psychiatrists.
There are just 20 beds in the State for children and adolescents under 16 years who require inpatient treatment and this is grossly inadequate, the report will say.
It will state that several reports which have drawn attention to the lack of services for these age groups have been ignored. A Department of Health report in 2001 admitted more than 100 beds were necessary. Yet no extra beds have been provided.
Dan Neville, president of the Irish Association of Suicidology and a Fine Gael TD who has been campaigning for better mental healthcare facilities, said 156 beds were needed for children and adolescents under the age of 16 and a further 80 were required for those aged 16 and 17 years.
There was also a shortage of specialists, he claimed. "If you were to compare Ireland to Scandinavia, they would have three times the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists."
"The Government has ignored the need to develop child and adolescent psychiatry. There are no beds for 16- and 17-year-olds and they end up in adult psychiatric units which are totally inappropriate for their needs," he said.
Last year a 15-year-old boy was found dead after running away from an adult psychiatric hospital in Dublin.
Mr Neville said the lack of investment in psychiatric services for young people was contributing to our high suicide rate. "There just aren't the resources to intervene at an early age," he said. The report will call for special outpatient and inpatient services for children as well as specialist services for children with conduct disorders and problems with substance abuse.
Two months ago a professor of child psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, Prof Michael Fitzgerald, described the length of time children have to wait to access specialist psychiatric services as "tragic". He said they could expect to wait between six and 18 months.
In December 2003, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin asked the ERHA to investigate the possibility of sending children in need of acute psychiatric care abroad.