The Children’s Ombudsman says the levels of investment in Child Mental Health Services is “an insult to children.”
Dr. Niall Muldoon was speaking at the Psychiatric Nurses Association Annual Delegate Conference in Carlow.
He told the conference “expenditure on mental health services as a percentage of total health expenditure has been in decline for forty years and now stands at just 5.2% of total spending on health.”
He continued “the budget allocated to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is just 10% of the mental health services budget, or just 0.63% of the overall health budget.”
Dr.Muldoon described the investment in mental health services for children as both “an insult to children and “unacceptably low.”
PNA General Secretary, Peter Hughes said the assessment from the Childrens’ Ombudsman confirmed the PNA’s long standing concerns about under-investment in CAHMS services nationally.
He finished: “it also highlights a CAMHS service that is failing children, young people, families, communities, and its staff.”
