At least 30 key positions within the HSE\u2019s child mental health services have been unfilled for more than a year amid a crisis of under-resourcing.<\/p>\n
New data from the HSE shows at least 30 psychology, social-work, and occupational-therapy posts within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) have been vacant for upwards of 12 months.<\/p>\n
The figures, released to Cork East Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide via a series of parliamentary questions, show at least 14 of those positions have been vacant since 2023 or earlier.<\/p>\n
The figure of 30 posts unfilled for longer than 12 months is itself a minimum one, given the Dublin and Midlands division of the HSE did not provide a breakdown of its historic unfilled positions, stating such detail would require a \u201cmanual review of individual posts\u201d and would \u201ctake some time to complete\u201d.<\/p>\n
With regard to the overall Camhs vacancies, South Tipperary was noted as a particularly stark example.<\/p>\n
Both of the area\u2019s two community Camhs teams have been without key disciplines \u2014 psychologists, a social worker, and an occupational therapist \u2014 for at least 22 months.<\/p>\n
In Limerick, meanwhile, a post had become vacant in May of 2023, but no further action was taken to expedite recruitment until the role was escalated to a national panel in October of 2025 \u2014 28 months later.<\/p>\n
Other posts were lost to cutbacks under the HSE\u2019s pay and numbers strategy. One senior occupational therapy post in Louth\/Meath has been vacant since January 2022, and has yet to be given approval to recruit.<\/p>\n
Mr Quaide, himself formerly a practising clinical psychologist, described the figures as \u201cthe predictable result of chronic underinvestment and failed workforce planning\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the country, young people with serious mental health difficulties are being sent to teams stripped of essential disciplines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose with co-existing intellectual disabilities, a particularly vulnerable group, face an even more threadbare service. In other parts of the country, the service is non-existent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n The Government is coldly rationing essential multidisciplinary care, and children and families are paying the price.\n <\/p>\n
\u00a0A spokesperson for the HSE said it \u201cregrets that anyone would have to wait to access care and is committed to delivering efficient, high-quality services for all patients and service users\u201d.<\/p>\n
Of the shortfall in intellectual disability postings, they said such roles \u201care very specialised, and it is challenging to get specialist staff to match geographic need\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth and social care services in Ireland, including Camhs and Camhs-ID, operate within a highly competitive global market for healthcare professionals, with significant international shortages across many of the disciplines required,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Mental health] Minister [Mary] Butler has invested in Camhs (Intellectual Disability) services and is driving forward the phased rollout of teams in the context of labour force constraints and a challenging international labour market,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 30 key positions within the HSE\u2019s child mental health services have been unfilled for more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-575289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}