Northern Ireland’s Children’s Commissioner wept as she expressed concern that mental health services for young people are in jeopardy due to the latest Stormont crisis.
Koulla Yiasouma became emotional as she gave evidence to a joint sitting of the Assembly’s health and education committees on children’s mental health and wellbeing on Wednesday.
Apologising to MLAs for crying, Ms Yiasouma said it was “very worrying” that increased funding to improve mental health services was at risk due to the likelihood that a three-year budget will not now be signed off by Stormont ministers ahead of the election.
She warned that progress on the Executive’s mental health strategy would also be undermined by the absence of a properly functioning administration.
Earlier in the hearing, which came during Children’s Mental Health Week, the commissioner had highlighted worrying increases in the number of young people requiring support through Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) as well the scale of the prescribing of anti-depressant medication to young people.
She highlighted a spike in young people with acute mental health problems attending emergency departments, with CAMHS referrals from A&Es having increased by 24% in the last year.
The commissioner said funding for CAMHS was due to increase from £2.5 million in 2022/23 to £7 million in 2024/25, but added that was dependent on the Executive agreeing a three-year budget.
A budget cannot be agreed by the administration in the current absence of a first and deputy first minister.
The Commissioner told MLAs that a quarter of CAMHS referrals in Northern Ireland are emergency or urgent, compared to the UK average of just over one in ten.
On the use of anti-depressants she added that latest figures, from 2020, shows that nearly 18,000 prescriptions for anti-depressants were dispensed, with more than 800 of them being for 140 children under 12. She added that this situation, which is contrary to NICE guidance, comes against a backdrop of their being “no evidence” of any increase in access for children to psychotherapy treatments since 2018.
Ms Yiasouma became emotional when Sinn Fein MLA Nicola Brogan asked her what impact the lack of budget would have on children’s mental health.
“I’m sorry, I’m finding myself getting quite emotional thinking about it, sorry,” she said.
“I am a woman of a certain age so I cry at the drop of a hat but this is making me quite emotional because I’ve been Children’s Commissioner for nearly seven years, we’ve had three years of no government and two years of pandemic and what that’s done to our children and young people and our whole community is worrying but their resilience has been remarkable through this.
“Their resilience and their ability to smile and joke and get on with the business in hand, whether that’s education, whether that’s their sports, whether that’s being with their mates is remarkable.”
The commissioner stressed she was “apolitical” and declined to comment on the reasons for the latest Stormont furore.
She said the pledges for increased CAMHS funding in the mental health strategy had been “very welcome” but were dependent on Stormont having a three-year budget.
“So in the medium to longer term for that to be put in jeopardy is very worrying,” she said.
“Northern Ireland and the children of Northern Ireland are best served by local politicians who’ve been elected by local people.”
She added: “Not having an executive is not an excuse not to do what needs to be done - but having an executive means we can plan things long term and do things sustainably.
“So there are things that can be done but this is a long-term reform programme that is needed to get us to where we need to be to ensure better outcomes for children and young people. And so I’m very hopeful that after the election that will be remedied.”
At the conclusion of the evidence session, Alliance chair Chris Lyttle MLA asked the commissioner to comment on the prospect of a new executive not being formed after May’s election.
“I’m not countenancing that after the election there won’t be an executive or an assembly,” she said.
“That’s unconscionable. I don’t belittle the reasons why we’re in this position and that’s not for me to comment on but what I know is that we have a unique situation in Northern Ireland, we have a unique education system, the way our health and social care system is set up is unique to Northern Ireland.
“So we need reform across all those areas and reform can only happen with politicians and our Executive and our Assembly working effectively together.
“So I am not countenancing that we will be without government this time next year.”
