TACKLING a backlog of ADHD assessments remains the “biggest pressure” on child mental health services, the director of mental health has said.
Last month it was revealed that more than 700 children in Jersey are being treated with ADHD medication following a rise in demand post-pandemic.
And Dr Darren Bowring, director of mental health and wellbeing, said waiting times are “around 70 weeks for a neurodevelopmental assessment” at the moment, a figure he admitted “we would like to be lower”.
The Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service recently moved into a new centre designed to improve the experience for young people and their families. The new facility handles neurodevelopmental and ADHD assessments and support for young people up to the age of 18
“We have about 1,800 children open to CAMHS and 771 of those are on ADHD treatment,” Dr Bowring said, adding that autism is also a big pressure on the service.
“This year we allocated an extra £200,000 to contract a company called Cooley Psychology. So they are currently delivering 160 additional autism assessments this year,” he said.
“I must say, the numbers on our waiting list are the lowest they’ve been for a number of years because of the efforts we’ve put in.”
Earlier this year, the service brought in an extra locum psychiatrist to do additional ADHD assessments.
Meanwhile, it was suggested that work to tackle Jersey’s growing adult ADHD assessment backlog could be outsourced.
Health managing director Andy Weir said 1,254 people were waiting for a diagnostic assessment and that, although the rate at which the list was growing had slowed, the total was still rising.
He told a recent Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel hearing that demand “hugely exceeded capacity” and the department did not have enough clinicians to meet it.
“Either we’re going to have to outsource, or we’re going to have to move some resource from another part of mental health services to fund this,” he said.
But Mr Weir warned that shifting money from other areas was a “significant concern”.
“The idea of reducing expenditure in the crisis team, for example, when we know that the work has doubled makes no sense,” he said.
He explained that the Health Minister had asked officials to draw up options for managing the backlog.
Mr Weir confirmed that conversations about shared-care agreements, which would allow GPs to handle repeat prescriptions after a specialist initiates ADHD treatment, were still ongoing.
Jersey’s child and adult mental-health services have both been pushing for this arrangement, which is standard across the UK, since 2023.
But local GPs, whose support would be needed to introduce shared-care arrangements, have raised concerns about capacity, expertise, and the lack of funding to deliver this service.
Mr Weir explained that Jersey had one psychiatrist specialising in ADHD. Under current prescribing arrangements, the specialist must continue to manage medication and reviews for patients who are diagnosed and treated, leaving less time for new assessments.
“Every time we diagnose someone and want to treat them, we’re reducing our diagnostic capacity,” he said.
The managing director added that his department has recruited a specialist nurse to take on some of the work and set up psychological groups to support people while they wait.
Mr Weir said the groups had received “good feedback”, but acknowledged that patients wanted a diagnosis and treatment where appropriate.
“Fundamentally, this is a problem that we need to try and crack,” he said. “But it’s difficult.”
