The Psychiatric Nurses Association is urging Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to intervene in the temporary closure of 11 child and adolescent psychiatric beds at a West Dublin facility due to staff shortages.
NA General Secretary Peter Hughes strongly condemned the closure of 11 of the 23 beds at the Linn Dara, Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) unit in Cherry Orchard and urged Mr. Donnelly to ensure resources are deployed with urgency. so that the beds can be reopened.
He said the HSE has confirmed that the beds will remain closed until September at the earliest due to staff shortages.
But Hughes said it is inexplicable that HSE allowed the beds to close “in light of the ongoing and worsening crisis in CAMHS service delivery nationally.”
He said: “Linn Dara Day plays a vital role in the provision of mental health services for children and adolescents in the Greater Dublin region. A similar decision to close the beds in this unit was made in 2017 and was met with great commotion and opposition. Now it seems that five years later nothing has been learned and we find ourselves back in the same position.
“We really have to ask ourselves what it takes for HSE to realize the extent of the CAMHS crisis in the country when they can embark on removing these 11 beds from the system.
“The HSE says that the reason for this decision is the shortage of nurses. The nursing complement for the inpatient unit is 51, however currently there are only 24 nurses employed for the unit, a shortage of 27 nurses.”
Hughes added that recent nursing graduates are emigrating once again now that most international travel restrictions due to Covid-19 have been lifted.
“This is causing a recruitment and retention crisis and particularly in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). At the same time, demand for CAMHS has increased dramatically post-Covid and it is inexplicable that at a time of ever-increasing demand for services that service provision is being so drastically curtailed by the proposed move at Linn Dara.
“While the PNA acknowledges the current difficulty in recruiting nurses, the Government and HSE response cannot simply be to reduce services. The situation at Linn Dara is yet another graphic illustration of the crisis in psychiatric nurse recruitment and retention which is a direct result of poor HSE planning and HSE must now move forward to find solutions and incentives to encourage nurse recruitment and retention. . adequately staff CAMHS services,” she said.
“This bed reduction will further exacerbate an already unacceptable waiting list for CAMHS and ultimately lead to an increase in inappropriate admission of children and adolescents to adult mental health units. In fact, for the next four months there will only be 56 operational beds at CAMHS nationwide, which is just over 50% of the 100 beds recommended in the Vision for Change (2006) mental health strategy,” he added.
An HSE spokesman said it had made “the difficult decision to temporarily reduce inpatient capacity at the Linn Dara Children and Adolescent Inpatient Center from 22 to 13 beds”.
“This short-term reduction will be reviewed weekly, with the intention of returning to full capacity as soon as possible. The capacity issue is not related to any funding difficulties, but is due to challenges in recruiting and retaining staff. nursing at levels necessary to operate Linn Dara at full capacity while maintaining the necessary standards of care and safety for patients.
“CAMHS community-based dedicated follow-up support will continue to be provided to all clients on a routine basis. Staff will be appropriately deployed to the Linn Dara Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Teams to enhance the level of support available to children and families in the area.
“The HSE is actively involved in comprehensive national and international recruitment processes for psychiatric nurses for Linn Dara. Recruitment efforts have included national and international campaigns, as well as recruiting for graduate programs. The HSE will continue all efforts to recruit staff for this unit over the next few weeks and will explore all possible options to hire qualified staff.”
Reference-www.independent.ie