Letters to the Editor: Camhs’ door opens only at critical point

The main findings from this study showed that some young people are not being seen by Camhs until they have either self-harmed or where they have attempted to take their own lives.

It found there are many children who have struggled to access services because they are autistic.

I found these findings to be utterly shocking and appalling.

More than 700 people responded to the survey. Nine in 10 parents who took part in the survey stated that their child’s mental health deteriorated while they were waiting to be seen by Camhs.

One parent described how her son was not seen by Camhs until he actually self-harmed and attempted suicide.

Another parent spoke of how Camhs only saw her daughter after she ended up in a hospital emergency department in crisis.

I found it rather unnerving to learn that 40% of parents reported their unwell child often ended up in the emergency department of a hospital while on the waiting list for Camhs.

Interestingly there were seven in 10 parents in the survey who said that if their child was autistic, it negatively impacted their access to Camhs and the mental health supports that were offered to them.

The report goes on to say that the door to Camhs only opens when a child’s health reaches a critical/emergency point.

We have been hearing about the deficiencies within Camhs services for a long time now as well as the protracted and stretched out period that it takes for children to be seen by this entity.

However this report starkly reveals how especially autistic children who have mental health problems are being pushed from pillar to post with no respite in between.

That’s seems to me to be a clear breach of the equal status act; that these children are being excluded from services which appears to be decided on the basis that they have a disability.

John O Brien, clinical psychotherapist, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Decline of the left

It was sad to see Mick Clifford join in the widespread gloating at the defeats of Clare Daly and Mick Wallace in the recent elections — ‘Daly and Wallace crashed out due to their weird reinterpretation of ‘peace’'.

In order to belittle and trivialise Daly, he mentions her endorsements from famous entertainers, dismissing them as ‘populist lefties’, whatever that means. He carefully omits the most important endorsement, that of Norman Finkelstein, who for decades has been the most prominent American opponent of Israeli influence on US foreign policy. Finklestein astutely observed that no one could match Daly’s ability to consistently make such cogent arguments in the 90 seconds allowed to MEPs. You would think a journalist would value such an attribute.

Daly’s crime in Clifford’s eyes was in being invited to speak on Russian and Chinese ‘state-run media’. Many would think it a better use of Clifford’s time if he addressed the more pressing issue of why Daly, an internationally known figure, was so rarely seen on our own ‘state-run media’. Would Daly and Wallace be acceptable to Clifford if they were constants on Fox News, Sky or CNN, all privately owned media and consequently renowned for their lack of bias ? (Sadly, in the current climate, I must point out I am being ironic.) Daly and Wallace were invited to speak by the media in the Global South, because they were among the few MEPs who saw the wars in Ukraine and Palestine as the Global South (that is, the most of the world’s population) saw them. Many people, those of a democratic bent, would think that having views shared by the majority was mostly a good thing, and that a greater burden of proof falls on the minority of the world, those who take a pro-US stance on these issues, than on the majority of world opinion which takes an anti-imperialist, anti-US line.

From the time of Frank Aiken in the 1950s Ireland saw itself in a unique position in world affairs, ie, as a Western country that had learned by hard experience that the world had not been improved by the domination of English-speaking nations, as has been the case for the last 250 years, and that the future of civilisation did not rest on the continuation of that dominance, as the US and UK obviously believed. This put us in agreement with most people in the world. Daly and Wallace fearlessly continued in that noble tradition which our elites shamelessly intend to abandon, by hook or by crook.

Unbiased observers suspect they lost because of the interventions of Niall Boylan and Michael McNamara. The vote share of Daly and Wallace declined for the same reason that Sinn Féin’s vote declined. It is the same reason that European left-wing parties are in decline and the reason that Biden will probably lose in November. All are identified with trendy supporters of open borders, which will always be anathema to most working class voters everywhere. It really is that simple. Eventually the left will have to stop denying this reality and start living in the real world — but don’t hold your breath.

Tim O’Halloran, Dublin 11