If the State Can’t Provide It, the State Should Pay for It.

An Appointment, Not a Waiting List.

This campaign is born out of my family's absolute worst nightmare. 19 months ago, we suffered the devastating, heart-breaking loss of my nephew to suicide. Today, we are living through the nightmare all over again. My niece has been diagnosed with ASD Level 1 and severe depression, yet she is currently stranded on a HSE CAMHS waiting list, denied the urgent care she needs.

We know the terrifying cost of waiting. We are being pushed to the brink of crisis while the system stalls, and I refuse to sit by and watch the state fail another child.

Right now, over 4,700 children across Ireland are stranded on HSE CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) waiting lists. Hundreds of them have been waiting for more than a year.

Behind these statistics are real families in despair. Parents are forced to watch their children’s mental health deteriorate day by day in a broken system. Early intervention is vital, but the HSE is tied up in recruitment bottlenecks and systemic delays.

If a child is waiting too long for a physical surgery, the state steps in through the National Treatment Purchase Fund to pay for them to be seen privately. Mental health deserves the exact same urgency. We are demanding that the Minister for Health and the Minister for Mental Health establish a Mental Health Treatment Purchase Fund.

Our demand is simple: If the HSE cannot provide a child with a CAMHS appointment within 3 months, the state must automatically fund alternative, accredited private or community-based therapies.

Access to life-saving mental health care should be based on a child's medical need, not their parents' ability to pay hundreds of Euros in private fees. If the state cannot provide the public care in time, the state must pay for the alternative.