There are almost 800 children awaiting for a psychology appointment in counties Roscommon, Galway and Mayo.
That’s according to Fiann Fáil TD for Roscommon/Galway Eugene Murphy who has highlighted the fact that the CHO2 area which covers counties Galway, Roscommon and Mayo has the highest number of young children waiting for a for a primary care psychology appointment in the country.
New figures provided to Fianna Fáil show that there were a total of 176 young children aged between 0-4 years waiting for an appointment at the end of January 2018 in CHO2 which is the highest number waiting in this age category in the country.
Nationally there are 6,181 children waiting for a primary care psychology appointment at the end of January 2018 with some 1,635 waiting over a year to be seen.
Deputy Murphy pointed out that a breakdown of the figures reveals that there are almost 800 children waiting for an appointment in counties Galway, Roscommon and Mayo.
“A total of 176 children aged between 0-4 years are waiting for an appointment in CHO2 area with a total of 607 children between the age of 5-17 years waiting for an appointment in counties Galway, Roscommon and Mayo at the end of January 2018.
“Of the total of 607 children some 27% or 166 of them have been left languishing on a waiting list for over a year which just shows the ongoing crisis in the provision of mental health services for children. Time is of the essence when dealing with vulnerable children and teenagers. The state and the HSE have a duty to do better by these children.
“Once again these figures are systematic of a mental health service in crisis in counties like Roscommon where only recently the HSE admitted they were considering the closure of more adult mental health hostels and we are still dealing with the fall out of the external review into mental health services but if the Government can’t even get things right from the beginning with mental health services for children then they are fighting a losing battle.
“Renewed efforts must be made to address these waiting lists in mental health services for children,” concluded Deputy Murphy.
