The HSE says over 6,700 appointments were offered under CAMHS, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Donegal between January and August of this year.
The figures were given to Cllr Ciaran Brogan at this week’s meeting of the Regional Health Forum.
Cllr Brogan was told that 2,711 appointments were offered by the North Donegal Team based in Letterkenny, 2,563 through the South Donegal Team based in Donegal Town and 1,483 by the Inishowen Team based in Buncrana.
The HSE is stressing this does not mean all the patients were seen in the clinics, and the figures include a combination of clinic, home, peripheral clinics, school, online, telephone and other communications.
Officials said their current systems of 32 data collection have no means of counting how many service users are physically seen in every clinic setting. They added the figures do not include agencies such as Cunamh and Pneuma, and other community partners who see patients on behalf of CAMHS.
The reply concludes the majority of appointments are individual face to face sessions, however group therapy, family sessions and virtual sessions are also provided as well as on call out-of-hours service and liaison and consultation to hospital wards.
