The Western Health and Social Care Trust has said that waiting times for its Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) are “wholly unsatisfactory” yet admits that the targets are “currently unattainable such are the clinical demands on the service”.
An analysis of WHSCT figures since 2017, carried out by the Impartial Reporter, reveals that the number of children waiting longer than nine weeks for access to CAMHS has risen from just one patient in April 2017 to 265 as of August 2019.
Figures relating to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) also show that waiting time targets are not being met and have increased significantly since 2017. In April 2017 42 patients were waiting longer than nine weeks for access to AMHS. The figure for August 2019 was 737.
In the area of Adult Mental Health the Western Trust is the worst performing of the five Trust areas in terms of waiting times with three of the other four Trust areas having less than 40 patients waiting longer than nine weeks to access AMHS.
It is a health target that no patient waits longer than nine weeks for access to either CAMHS or Adult Mental Health Services.
The Belfast Trust provides CAMHS services for patients in the South Eastern Trust as well as its own Trust area and have 332 children waiting longer than nine weeks for access. The Western Trust has 265, the Northern Trust has 138 and the Southern Trust has zero and is the only Trust to reach the target set.
In response to questions from this newspaper the WHSCT has said that the rise in waiting times in CAMHS is down to a number of contributing factors including increased demand and a reduction in services in the voluntary sector:
A Spokesperson for the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) said:
“The CAMHS (Children and Adolescents Specialist Mental Health Service) is committed to meeting access targets and wishes to acknowledge that current waiting times is wholly unsatisfactory, however currently unattainable, such are the clinical demands on the Service. The CAMHS Service has witnessed and experienced an unprecedented rise in referrals to the Service since 2017. Alongside the increase in referrals, the reduction to voluntary and community service provisions offering therapeutic support to young people and the reduction to the school counselling provision may also be a mitigating factor pertaining to a rise in referral rates.”
The Spokesperson went on to say that Senior Management within the Trust are “well appraised” of the situation and that a number of “proposals have been implemented”.
The WHSCT also revealed that a recruitment drive has been undertaken to fill vacant clinical posts.
Waiting lists for access to Adult Mental Health Services saw a significant rise between April 2017 and 2018 and in response to a question asked by this newspaper the Trust revealed that it had “put a range of initiatives in place via waiting list initiative monies. This included the provision of overtime, employment of specialist psychology and Cognitive Behavioural Therapists Agency staff and signposting to the use of community and voluntary sector staff”.
Despite these initiatives stresses on the system continued and between April 2018 and August 2019 the number of patients waiting longer than nine weeks for access more than doubled.
The Trust said it was continuing to “look at capacity and demand across all service areas and has deployed a range of quality improvement initiatives”, while it also revealed that it was collaborating “with the Department of Health to seek further funding to meet our increasing demand across services.”
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