New data obtained by RTÉ News reveals that as of August this year, some children in Dublin have been waiting up to 13 years to see a primary care psychologist.
The Primary Care Psychology Service acts as the first step for children referred by their GP with mild to moderate mental health issues, reports RTE.
It is intended as an early intervention system before a child might need the support of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), which helps those experiencing more severe mental health difficulties.
The figures indicate that more than 28,000 children nationwide are currently on the waiting list to see a primary care psychologist, with over 15,000 waiting for more than a year, reports RTE.
In Dublin’s northwest region, as of August, some children faced waits of up to 13 years for an appointment.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has since stated that this waiting period has now been reduced to ten years, reports RTE.
One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, described to RTÉ News how her autistic daughter spent five years on the primary care waiting list without ever being seen by a psychologist, eventually reaching crisis point and entering CAMHS.
“We ended up going to CAMHS because at this point our daughter was having multiple meltdowns a day and these are not temper tantrums, they are complete meltdowns where you lose the ability to sometimes speak or to walk or to talk and violence becomes part of it and it’s a very distressing situation, reports RTE.
“So, through her stress and anxiety we ended up going into Crumlin (hospital) ourselves because we were totally at a loss on how to help her at this stage, it was extremely distressing, reports RTE.
“We met psychology in Crumlin, they were really nice and they kept her up there overnight and CAMHS were notified about the distressful situation we were in and how difficult it was, and it was quite an unsafe situation at this stage, and CAMHS rang us and they were the ones who came up with a plan to try to work through some programmes with us,” reports RTE.
The woman said she believes her family was let down by the system.
“We never got to see anybody apart from as a parent, they never ever got to meet our child and anytime we tried to push for when, how long is a piece of string, is there any time they can tell us. Will it be two years, will it be five years – they never saw her in all that time,” reports RTE.
Her daughter has now been taken off the primary care psychology waiting list and placed on the Children’s Disability Network Team list.
Parents say this practice of moving children between waiting lists is happening more frequently, reports RTE.
Jaimie Williams’ four-year-old daughter, who shows signs of autism and ADHD, suffers from ongoing anxiety.
In September this year, she was transferred from the primary care psychology list, after being seen, to the assessment team’s waiting list for that area, reports RTE.
However, she has been told she will need to wait six years for an assessment and diagnosis. Jaimie says her daughter struggles every day while waiting for the essential support she needs.
“She struggles every day just to try to live a normal life and managing day to day it would be a rollercoaster. Just trying to get through normal daily existence, going out to the shops, coming home and having meals, just normal day-to-day stuff, reports RTE.
“I feel like I have gone above and beyond to beg for help for her because of how she struggles. If not for our dedication to helping her ourselves, God knows where she would end up, reports RTE.
“We are doing all this without help without assistance and so I’m stuck researching therapies and things to do at home and researching possible diagnosis, just so we have half a clue what we are dealing with because we are not going to know until she’s ten years old – that’s a joke,” reports RTE.
Psychiatrists warn that the long delays in primary care psychology are worsening the CAMHS backlog and negatively affecting children’s mental health.
Dr Patricia Byrne, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty at the College of Psychiatry, said the shortage of primary care psychology services is pushing CAMHS close to breaking point, reports RTE.
She said: “Currently there is a complete lack of available services in the primary care area resulting in a huge increase in referrals of these children to CAMHS, stretching very limited services further, to almost breaking point at times.”
Dr Byrne added that the longer children go without help, the more severe their mental health problems may become, reports RTE.
Commenting on the figures showing waits of up to 13 years in some areas, she said the State is failing its youngest citizens.
“These are numbers that you would not expect to see in a third world country, let alone a first world country that has good finances, children are being completely failed by the system,” reports RTE.
Dr Byrne outlined several causes for the state of primary care services.
She said: “Primary care services along with all mental health services have been chronically underfunded, under resourced and understaffed, over the years we have an increase in population, Ireland is one of the youngest populations in Europe, reports RTE.
“Also, we have had a significant increase in the rates of mental health disorders. All of this has led to a massive mismatch in resources versus demand,” reports RTE.
Children’s Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon said the system is not meeting children’s needs.
He said: “They need to get early access to primary care so an issue doesn’t develop into something worse, and to hear that many children are waiting more than a year is so hard to fathom, reports RTE.
“But it’s a time bomb waiting to happen because those children, the longer they have to wait for the first intervention, the more likely they will need longer treatment, reports RTE.
“When it’s up as far as 13 years, I mean that is not a waiting list, that is diabolical. That is outside of your childhood now. You won’t even go onto that waiting list now until you’re five so that child is now an adult and that should never happen,” reports RTE.
Dr Sinéad Feeney, a GP at the Crescent Medical Centre in Galway, said the lack of primary care psychology services has become a major problem for her patients.
She said: “There is basically no point referring children to the primary care psychology because the referrals either come back to us saying they have been added to the waiting list and they can expect to be seen in a few years, or we are told that they are not the appropriate service and they should look elsewhere, reports RTE.
“But there is no option, especially for a child that doesn’t have the means to go privately, reports RTE.
“If you happen to be a child who is born into a family of means then you have got an advantage, and then if you’re from a low-income family you have got the double whammy of poverty, and the options are extremely limited,” reports RTE.
The HSE said there are 181 primary care centres nationwide, though due to limited staffing levels, psychologists are not based in every centre.
It said that 200 psychologists currently work within primary care and that each health area has access to them, reports RTE.
In a statement, the HSE acknowledged that some people are facing extremely long waiting times for services.
It added that between 2017 and 2025, the number of referrals to Primary Care Psychology has risen by 62%, reports RTE.
The HSE said this increase continues to pose a major challenge.
It also stated that children’s cases tend to be more complex and often require multiple sessions compared to adult services, reports RTE.
Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide said: “The crisis in primary care services for young people has been happening in plain sight of clinicians and families for many years. It has been drastically worsened by the HSE recruitment embargo in 2023/2024 and similar restrictions since through the Pay and Numbers Strategy. This waiting-list crisis is affecting all disciplines and all areas of the country, despite Simon Harris’s contention in mid-2024 that it was particular to psychology in Cork and Kerry. I have asked the Disability Matters and Health Committees to conduct a joint meeting to examine this crisis in depth,” reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
