There were 1,000 more children waiting for an appointment with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in April compared to the same month last year, representing an increase of more than a quarter in the year.
CAMHS is a specialist clinical service for people under 18 with moderate to severe mental health difficulties.
The Health Service Executive has said that the increase is attributed to a rise in referrals, staffing issues and recruiting.
Figures released by the HSE this evening show there were 4,003 children on the waiting list last month compared to 2,919 in April 2021.
10% (405 children) are waiting for an appointment longer than 12 months.
The HSE said that 134 children came off the list between March and April.
The data shows 4,137 children on the list in March, but it reduced to 4,003 in April.
The HSE data shows that 42% (1,692) of those waiting to be seen are waiting less than 12 weeks.
Meanwhile, the number of children waiting for an appointment with CAMHS also rose by more than a quarter between October last year and February 2022.
According to HSE figures, 3,914 children were waiting for an appointment with the service, an increase of 849 since October 2021.
The HSE said that every effort is made to prioritise urgent referrals so that young people with high risk presentations are seen as soon as possible and that this is often within 24 to 48 hours.
There are 73 CAMHS Community Mental Health Teams nationwide and all teams screen the referrals received.
As of February 2022, the HSE said that 3,914 children were on the CAMHS waiting list, 53% or 1,808 of those are waiting less than 12 weeks for an appointment, while 9% or 321 are waiting longer than 12 months.
Some 34% of those waiting were based in Cork Kerry Community Healthcare and in Midlands Louth Meath Community Health Organisation.
The HSE acknowledged that part of the problem is down to staff recruitment and retention issues.
At the end of December 2021 there were 77.7 consultant psychiatrists across the 73 CAMHS teams.
The HSE said that currently data on vacancies is not collected centrally.
Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health, Mary Butler, said that in addition to more and more children being referred to CAMHS teams, children are no longer leaving the services as quickly as before due to the complexity of their cases.
Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, Minister Butler said that already this year there has been a spike in the number for referrals, with provisional figures for March showing that 3,443 children are waiting for an appointment.
"Notwithstanding the fact that we have seen so many new referrals, the amount of children, new referrals last year, increased by 2,000. So, we’re delivering more services on the ground, but the amount of new referrals coming into us are up 20%, and coupled with that the amount of people leaving the services have slowed down.
"The cases are more complex, children need a lot of support … a huge amount of effort is being put into the 73 CAMHS teams throughout the country," she said.
Ms Butler said they taking initiatives to reduce CAMHS waiting lists, especially for the 9% of referrals who are waiting longer than a year.
"91% of children who are an urgent referral are seen within 48 hours. But there are children who wouldn’t be deemed as urgent, and unfortunately they get pushed down the line, and I’m putting a targeted approach in place to deal with those cases waiting over 12 months," she said.
Ms Butler said there were six vacant consultant psychiatrist posts currently across all CAMHS teams, adding that "it is quite difficult to try and fill certain posts", highlighting positions such as psychiatrist posts in south Kerry, and dietician posts in Donegal.
"It is quite challenging to get people into posts in more rural areas, even though I wouldn’t regard Kerry, Donegal or Wexford as rural per say," she added.
"There’s a myriad of issues in relation to where people want to work, and some people want to work in the bigger centres in the bigger cities," she said.
Additional reporting Kate Egan
