A counsellor originally from Clonmel says CAMHS patients being seen by a doctor in the UAE is shocking but not surprising.
Aoife McGrath, who lived in Clonmel but now works in Laois, says that children and adolescents who are in crisis deserve better than to be seen by video call by a doctor in another country.
This comes in the wake of the South Kerry CAMHS scandal as it has emerged that a crucial role within the service has not been filled.
Aoife told Tipp Today that while any form of consultation is better than nothing, in person sessions would be more appropriate:
“It’s very hard dot get a GP appointment and alot of that would be a phone call, it’s very hard to access child play therapists, its hard to access child counsellors who would take on that crucial 13-17 age range that many counsellors are afraid to go near. Some would argue is it better to have some sort of psychiatric connection for those kids, I would argue that surely there has to be some where that is closer to home, even if they have to travel, but given waiting list for services it doesn’t shock me. I jus think it’s very sad that it has come to this.”
Aoife also says that seeing someone in person is important because a lot can be missed on a video call
“It’s also not unusual to offer services – counselling services anyway, and I’ll take that out of it for a minute. Counselling services, you can counsel anyone from anywhere in the world online, but psychiatric care I would think, is way beyond that remit because people need to be properly assessed and I don’t think that someone in a different country can do that adequately”
