Anne Lucey
The chief executive of the HSE, Paul Reid has been asked to directly address a meeting of the council in south Kerry amid continuing fallout over a report into Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) in the area.
The report found 46 children in the area were harmed while under the care of the service, sending shockwaves through the community, councillors said. Questions still had to be answered and the service was still not properly staffed or functioning, a meeting heard.
“Such treatment has sent shockwaves through the hearts and minds of parents all over this country.
"We need to know how the body in charge of our Health Service could allow the most vulnerable in our society to be abused in such a despicable manner by those in whom they had no choice but trust,” the chair of the Kenmare Municipal District, Fianna Fáil's Michael Cahill said.
The topic was one of two emergency motions before the meeting on Friday.
Mr Cahill’s motion proposed to invite Mr Reid to address the members “following the publishing of the most damning of reports that found that 46 children in south Kerry were harmed while under the care of the HSE”.
A second joint-motion by three councillors called “for every possible resource” to be put in place to ensure a functioning Camh services in all of Co Kerry.
It also called for the recruitment of psychological and social workers and the appointment of a long awaited psychiatrist to the south Kerry service.
'A lot of answers to get'
The Kenmare District is the heart of south Kerry and includes Killorglin, Cahersiveen, Waterville, Valentia Island, Sneem and Kenmare.
The independent councillor Johnny Healy-Rae said “we have a lot of answers yet to get.”
To access mental health services in the first place was difficult, he said, but for patients to reach that stage and then be given such treatment was “unbelievable”, he added.
“It is very disheartening again from the HSE,” Mr Healy-Rae said.
The first rule of “do no harm” had been broken and the HSE “have a lot of answers yet to give,” he said.
A State apology should be provided to the families, Fine Gael Councillor Patrick Connor-Scarteen said.
There was no point in training doctors and nurses and then exporting them, Independent Councillor Dan McCarhty said.
Cllr Norma Moriarty (Fianna Fáil) suggested scholarships should be offered on the premise the psychiatrists return to work in peripheral counties. A substandard service should not be part of living in rural areas, she added.
