Nearly 600 children are waiting over a year for a CAMHS appointment with waiting lists for CAMHS doubling over the past 2 years .
2,112 children appeared on the list in July 2020 , this has risen to 3,937 by November 2022 .
more worryingly is that the HSE confirm that nearly 600 children are waiting over 12 months for a CAMHS appointment, an increase of 168% on the June 2020 figure .
This waiting time is not consistent across the country with some counties much worst than the national figure with Kerry the worst impacted .
Of course the HSE and the Department of Health hide behind the overall budget figure for mental health at €1.2bn they fail to address the inability of the Department and the HSE to manage this budget with a resource plan and with any real urgency .
indeed ,the key goal set by the Department of Health “ to ensure access to services ,especially for long waiters “ has failed to be reached for yet another year ( 2022 ) and looks like 2023 with be a disaster for children awaiting a first appointment and indeed any service from CAMHS .
The HSE needs to be remove from this equation and the Government must act fast to prevent this fiasco from continuing into another year with waiting lists rising over 1000 for a first appointment.