Kids still admitted to adult psych units

Fifteen-year-old adolescents are currently the most common age category attending child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), according to the HSE.

And a report on 2008 statistics from the services by the HSE shows that 27 admissions of young people aged less than 16 years in 2008 were to adult psychiatric units.

The report has found that emotional problems and hyperkinetic (including ADHD) conditions together accounted for well over half (55.4%) of primary presentations or the main problem experienced by the child or adolescent.

Males were in the majority for all types of problems reported except deliberate self-harm and eating disorders, where females were in the majority.

While males made up over 70% of cases in the younger children's age groups, this had dropped back to a 45% male/55% female ratio by mid to late teens.

The report says generally, hyperkinetic and autistic spectrum issues were the main presentations for younger children to its mental health services, while emotional problems and deliberate self-harm made up the main presentations for teenagers over 15 years and older.

The report shows that while community mental health services for younger people are primarily responsible for the 0 to 15 age group, young people aged 16 and over accounted for over 11% of the CAMHS teams' cases.

"This reflects the practice of services to keep on cases even after the young person reaches their 16th birthday, which has implications for service capacity if additional resources are not available," the HSE said.

One in 10 children suffers from some form of mental disorder and the incidence of mental health problems among children and young people is increasing, according to the HSE.

The HSE says there is a downward trend in waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services, although 50% of new cases referred to the service must wait over four weeks to access the service after being referred, the figures show.

All CAMHS services screen children and adolescents referred to their services on the basis of urgency of the cases concerned, the report states.

The HSE says waiting lists for cases deemed not a high priority have declined since 2007, with nearly 500, or 13.6% fewer than in March 2007 now on the overall waiting list; 67% of new referral cases were seen by the CAMHS within 13 weeks,"which is the widely accepted norm of waiting times", according to the HSE.

Ther are currently 3,117 on the overall waiting list for child and adolescent services.

The report says children and adolescents who suffer from more than one problem were cited by the service team members as the most common factor impacting on the teams' ability to respond to demand.

Referring to the controversial issue of inpatient facilities for child and adolescent psychiatry, the report says the capacity of the HSE child and adolescent inpatient units (Warrenstown, Dublin and St. Anne’s, Galway) recently increased to a total of 16 beds, operating on a full-time 7 day basis.

Also, the opening of two new units at St. Vincent’s Psychiatric Hospital, Dublin and St. Stephen’s Hospital, Cork increased this number to a total of 30 beds.

The HSE says work is progressing on the two new 20 -bed units at Merlin Park Hospital, Galway and Bessboro, Cork, and both are due to open in 2010.

The figures show that in 2008 there were 406 admissions of children and adolescents up to the age of 18 years to inpatient units.

Females accounted for 58% of admissions. Forty-three per cent of all admissions were aged 17 years on admission, 28% were aged 16 years, and 29% were aged 15 years or younger.

Of the 406 admissions, 263 (65%) were to adult inpatient units and 143 (35%) to child and adolescent units. Twenty-seven admissions of young people aged less than 16 years in 2008 were to adult units.

[Posted: Fri 09/10/2009]