Mentally ill teens put on adult wards

IRISH CHILDREN with severe mental health conditions are still being admitted to adult psychiatric hospitals where there is no specific treatment for them, a conference in Galway heard at the weekend.

Consultant child and adult psychiatrist Dr Kieran Moore said that although this practice was due to end by December 2011 under an amendment to the Mental Health Act 2001, 15- and 16-year-old children were still being treated in this way.

When it came to more day-to-day common depressive disorders, the main treatment for children and adolescents was generally psychological while sometimes medication was used, he explained.

However, staffing of child and adolescent multidisciplinary teams around the country was woefully inadequate due to lack of investment in this area.

The Wexford-based psychiatrist was the keynote speaker at Mental Health Ireland’s annual conference, the theme of which was Promoting Positive Mental Health in Young People.

Dr Moore said mental illness was a very common and under-diagnosed problem, with one in five children or adolescents found to have a mental illness or mental distress at any one time and 8-12 per cent of these sufficiently severe to need to see a psychiatrist.

“Even when it is picked up, it’s hard to get services. The lack of investment means the services are not there.

“Only 7 per cent of our total health spend is spent on mental health and there is the whole stigma around mental illness,” he said.

“Vision for Change, the Government’s blueprint for mental health service provision over the next seven years, contains very good recommendations, but we are way behind in implementing these and the economic situation is not helping,” he commented.

Conditions such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia caused huge distress, not only for the child who was diagnosed with the illness but for their parents and wider family, Dr Moore said.

Brian Howard, chief executive of Mental Health Ireland (MHI), said the organisation had historically channelled a lot of its energy into young people, particularly the school-going population.

The organisation’s national public speaking project is approaching its 30th anniversary and MHI is shortly to introduce its education pack for second level students, Mental Health Matters, to primary schools.