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THE FOUNDER OF suicide charity Pieta House has called on children with mental health issues to be granted access to private institutions.
Senator Joan Freeman wants the government to take the action to stop such children from being admitted to adults-only institutions.
The charity is pushing for the admission of children to adult-facilities to be banned via legislation, although Freeman admits that that “will take a year”.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Freeman said that Ireland is “in breach of all international regulations” by allowing the “enormous problem” of children in adult psychiatric units.
“The inspector of mental health services has described this as inexcusable, counter-therapeutic and almost custodial,” she said.
Freeman says that the fact the 2001 Mental Health Act made no provision for children “was the first problem”.
“The second problem is that children today are dealing with very different issues like cyber-bullying, pornography, gambling addiction. If this continues the consequences down the road will be insurmountable.”
She claims that by making it illegal to admit children to adult units, the HSE “will be forced to come up with alternatives”.
“Legislation will take a year, but there are many immediate things we can look at. Collaboration between private hospitals and the public sector could almost immediately decrease these admissions,” Freeman said.
Waiting list
This will decrease the 2,300 children who are on the waiting list and all it requires is a dialogue with intent and the government to draw up a service-level agreement.
Freeman bemoaned the fact that one private institution in Ireland had less than six referrals last year, while eight children were sent to England “at a cost of €3 million to our country”.
“The government is very good at creating new task forces and new documents with new strategies, and all they do is gather dust. We need to do something practical,” she said.
Speaking later on the same programme, Minister for Mental Health Helen McEntee said that the level of admissions of children to adult-only psychiatric units has in fact greatly improved in recent years.
“We still have work to do for definite. But in 2008 75% of children were put in inappropriate care. Last year 95% of children were put in appropriate care. So we’ve seen massive improvements in recent years,” she said.
Clarifying Freeman’s call for access to be given to children into the State’s private mental health institutions McEntee said that there is “an ongoing conversation between the HSE and the private sector”, but that “a balance needs to be struck with how we improve our own services”.
“We are all fishing from the same pool here,” she said.
But something I am very conscious of as a minister is that when we are talking about these figures we’re talking about people and their lives, so this is something that cannot wait.
If you need to talk, contact:
Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
National Suicide Helpline 1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)
Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie – (suicide, self-harm)
Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
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Excellent, so the HSE is so f&ked up we need to start introducing laws to get them to stop breaking their own rules & guidelines.
Exactly. It’s OK to break the law when you are the law.
It may be OK to them, it’s certainly not OK to us!
Would someone in government please bring in legislation to dissolve that HSE , not to change its name but dissolve it’s existence it’s an embarrassment to this state. Who in God’s name employ’s these incompetent fo..ls.
@john: I wouldn’t hold your breath, FG use it to get exposure and experience for their bright young stars, and the leader of the opposition is the man whose bright idea the whole thing was to begin with.
Here’s a clear case of what to “outsource” – let Pieta House manage mental health for the HSE! They are miracle workers for what they accomplish on a meager budget. They understand duty of care.
No thanks. It’s a company/charity at the end of the day. Health should not be off loaded to companies.
There is not enough been done for Mental health!
For the love of god ……. how in this day and age is all of this still happening in this country are we that short sighted, narrow minded and just blind to all of these issues…….or is it the people in authority don’t care or it’s all so messed up we just can’t fix it – or are unwilling until it’s front page news
Everyday it’s something new – that u read – and u wouldn’t believe it if it was a different country and we would have our opinion – but it’s at our own door
@The Red Devil: I think in truth its a mixture of all of those things, but crucially I don’t think there is any political will to actually solve the mess in our health service.
I think the ministry itself is now basically just being used as a means of boosting political profiles.
The entire structure of the HSE is not fit for purpose, we see scandals in the news on a weekly basis, and there never seem to be any real consequences. No one is accountable.
Unfortunately, solving the issue would require a long term strategy, a complete rewrite of policy, and restructuring of the service, and how it’s managed and governed – it would be a massive and complex job.
Contrast the job at hand with the fact that in the last 20 years the average length of time a minister for health holds the office is 2.5 years. Under FG we are already on to our 3rd minister in 5 years.
The major problem with the HSE and the major cause of budgetary constraints within the HSE is people and in particular the number of administrative personnel
If a department closes they are simply moved to another that is already overstaffed
Its a fact and I`ve witnessed it , there are departments which started with 2 and now have 12 doing the same workoad and thats not an exageration
And because of their poxy unions they can`t be let go or sacked for poor performance
Unless someone is willing to grow a pair of balls the HSE and the Public Service Pension is going to bankrupt this country
Enough is now enough and the bleeding heart liberals supporting the HSE need to step aside and for the sake of the country take their medicine
The administrative staffing levels are swallowing money hand over fist with the end result that front line services are suffering , these are serices we are entitled to and simply not getting
I know enough in the HSE and by Christ they are delusional people
Rant over for now
What is needed is extra staff and inpatient capacity in CAMHS services nationally.(Child & Adolescence Mental Health Services) example- here in Kerry there are no CAMHS inpatient services, and Kerry children are referred to the Cork services for inpatient care. The problem is capacity in Cork is about as tight as cinema seats on Mars, therefore for that reason alone if you live in Kerry your child will end up in the adult inpatient services. I assume if you have health insurance cover, John of God’s CAHMS in Dublin will take your child as long as the insurance keep paying.The problem is under resourcing to no resourcing and I don’t see this changing any time soon. It’s not a change in the law that’s need ,it’s a change of attidute that says mental health doesn’t matter.
Pls read I can assure u young people have been admitted and stayed in this unit and although hse states that something’s in report may be historical that is not the case. Family member in this unit recently witnessed 18yr old girl in bed with 26yr old man in thtee bedded male ward. The young girl was totally psychotic on drugs. The guy didn’t care gd has partner and young baby. The staff in the office doors closed chatting and on their phone’s
Most people are not born with mental health problems .life in ireland today makes the will to live impossible for alot of people . 3rd world services and the daily grind are not sustainable . no dignity no life. Our rulers know this all to well .
This is what the tax payers money is going towards? Guess I can kiss that beach house in San Diego goodbye
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