Mental health service for young people Jigsaw saw a 23% yearly rise in numbers, with some counties including Cork and Galway seeing longer waiting times as a result.<\/p>\n
Director of services Sarah Cullinane described this as a \u201creally, really significant\u201d jump, with smaller, often rural services more challenged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The housing crisis has played a role in the high numbers, and she said young adults reported \u201cthey\u2019re not able to launch their lives”.<\/p>\n
In Cork, waiting times hit 10 weeks in March before dropping to seven by December, with 125 people waiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The wait in Kerry by December was four weeks, down from nine in March, with 21 people waiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Galway, waits were also 12 weeks in March, and seven by December. Some 116 people were waiting.<\/p>\n
In Tipperary, it was a five-week wait in December, having been down to one week in September. The Limerick figures showed a five-week wait last month, down from eight in March.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Dublin Southwest cut waits from 12 weeks in March to one week in September and December.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jigsaw\u2019s online service had a typical wait of two to three weeks, data released to Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Kerry Pa Daly showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Cullinane said: \u201cOn a national level between 2024 and 2025, we saw a 23% increase in referrals. It\u2019s really, really significant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite this, 83% of people were seen within a month during the second-half of last year compared to 40% during 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know if a young person waits more than two months to see us, data tells us their chances of having a positive outcome are reduced,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also raised staffing challenges, saying: \u201cIn some of the more rural settings, it can be harder. There are times when you go to recruit, and you don\u2019t get anybody.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It can be easier in Dublin, but \u201cthe turnover is quite high\u201d, she said, noting staff often leave for better-paid HSE roles.<\/p>\n
This “competing with the system for staff” remains despite \u201csome success\u201d last year when a pay deal was negotiated for many HSE-funded bodies.<\/p>\n
Jigsaw received \u201cvery welcome\u201d budget funding to open a centre in Waterford and expand to Ennis.<\/p>\n
However, she said: \u201cWhat we didn\u2019t get, and is a real struggle in health funding generally, is additional funding for services that already exist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Daly said: “The evidence is clear. Early intervention works, but it needs real backing from this Government. There is a crisis in youth mental health right now, right through from primary care to the specialist services of Camhs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He called for investment, saying: \u201cThe demands on Jigsaw are growing when they are already stretched incredibly thin. Too many teams are understaffed, and too many young people still face delays.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in brought forward a private members’ bill on Tuesday on the crisis in mental health services. Mr Daly pointed out 11 counties, including Kerry, do not have suicide crisis assessment nurses.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Jigsaw, Spunout, and Families for Reform of Camhs are before the Oireachtas Health Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mental health service for young people Jigsaw saw a 23% yearly rise in numbers, with some counties including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-273706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}