Recruitment is ongoing for a new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Director

A recruitment process for the post of Head of Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the HSE opened this week.

According to Secretary of State for Mental Health and the Elderly Mary Butler, his new key role will include leadership, operational oversight and delegated management of all services in child and adolescent mental health services across the country

They will also be responsible for managing and coordinating service planning activities, partnership and capacity building, service roster development and setting standards of service across all child and adolescent mental health services in Ireland, she said.

The incumbent will report to the HSE National Director for Community Operations and will be supported by a dedicated and funded team.

This role and the broader Office of Child and Adolescent Mental Health will result in enhanced liaisons with the National Clinical Advisor Group Lead Mental Health, which in turn will support the development of current and future national clinical programs related to adolescent mental health.

Ms Butler stated: “I am delighted to see that the HSE has now advertised for this important new role. Developing this role further has been a key priority for me over the past year and it will play a crucial role in ensuring that integrated mental health services for young people have a more centralized and evidence-based focus within HSE.

“We will see the completed reviews and audits resulting from the Maskey report, along with the Mental Health Commission’s final report on CAMHS later this year, which together will provide us with real-time data never before available to to support this new post. Importantly, there will be new support staff to support this welcome initiative.

“I will ensure that the HSE also assumes the new post of National Clinical Lead for Youth Mental Health as announced in the Dáil last week as soon as possible.”