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WQ.421/2021
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCTAION
BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. JOHN
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2021
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2021
Question
Will the Minister state the average waiting list time, in days, for patients referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (C.A.M.H.S.) for each month between January 2018 and September 2021?
Answer
The table below shows the average waiting list time and includes children and young people referred for neuro-developmental assessment, along with those referred to CAMHS.
Waiting list time in days
2018 2019 2020 2021 January 13 59 55 23 February 22 64 71 11 March 25 45 46 26 April 38 31 37 20 May 40 25 19 26 June 19 27 31 33 July 18 26 14 42 August 30 46 28 47 September 37 55 21 20 October 34 48 17
November 41 55 18
December 40 52 29
Existing data shows the number of days from when a referral is received to when the initial assessment is completed on the system.
Referrals are triaged upon arrival to CAMHS and many initial contacts occur quickly with input from CAMHS practitioners, that lead to initial assessment reports.
There is now a CAMHS Duty and Assessment team that screen all referrals and provide input the same day if indicated. As part of the CAMHS redesign there will be additional investment in the Duty and Assessment Team and specialist CAMHS to address increasing referrals to the service.
As part of the CAMHS redesign and improvement to CAMHS data, we are exploring being able to capture referral to initial contact / case opening data which will provide a clearer picture of the speed of input.
Future data also needs to separate referrals for neurodevelopmental assessments from referrals for Mental Health concerns, given different time scales for both, an average set of data does not distinguish between.