Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler has welcomed the appointment of Dr Amanda Burke as Ireland’s first ever Clinical Lead for Youth Mental Health. Speaking at a Sharing the Vision youth mental health transitions consultation event in Dublin today, Minister Butler, said:
“Youth mental health remains one of the core mental health priorities for me, and I am happy to see the progress that is being made in terms of implementing the recommendations arising from the Maskey report, while simultaneously driving service improvements through the specialist youth mental health transitions group of Sharing the Vision. “The appointment of Dr Amanda Burke as our first ever Clinical Lead for Youth Mental Health is another positive step in driving these improvements. Dr Burke’s professional expertise and personal commitment in the area of youth mental health place her in an ideal position to support the Health Service Executive (HSE), my Department, and all key stakeholders, to drive improvements in services nationally.”

Today’s consultation event is one of a number of events being delivered by the Sharing the Vision Specialist Group on Youth Mental Health Transitions. It is supported by the HSE National Mental Health Operations, Spunout and the Department of Health. Minister Butler added:
“Today’s consultation event is another step in the right direction of making our youth mental health services more responsive to the needs of the those that avail of these support services. Engagement with all stakeholders working in, and engaged with, mental health services is so vital for us all to understand the realities, concerns and future visions of stakeholders. I know that Dr Burke supports whole-heartedly the development of a patient-centred, modern and progressive youth mental health service, and I look forward to the contribution that she will make as all stakeholders work together to drive positive change”.

Notes to Editors:
The Programme for Government commits to improving all aspects of CAMHS in line with Sharing the Vision, the national mental health policy and Connecting for Life, Ireland’s national strategy to reduce suicide. In addition to developing specialist mental health services for children, the Department of Health and the HSE continue to improve all aspects of Prevention and Early Intervention mental health care under implementation of Sharing the Vision. This includes important partnerships with Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) agencies.

Minister Butler recently convened a series of high-level roundtables bringing together the Department of Health, HSE, and other key stakeholders in youth mental health to drive improvement in CAMHS with a focus on executive leadership, clinical expertise and service provision.

The post of Clinical Lead will support the work of the Assistant National Director for Youth Mental Health, who will take up their post early in Q3 2023.

Minister Butler secured funding for the post under Budget 2023 to fill an acknowledged gap to better link youth mental health across various strands, and as part of the Government’s commitment to enhancing mental health services, underlined by the unprecedented level of funding, totalling over €1.2 billion, that was allocated to the overall mental health budget in Budget 2023.