Expansion of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services at the RHH

Children and young people in need of mental health support will benefit from an expansion in children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH).

From this week, the capacity of CAMHS at the RHH will be expanded with the extension of staffed hours until 10pm, seven days per week, to respond to child and adolescent mental health presentations and inpatient needs.

Under previous arrangements, CAMHS were available at the hospital Monday to

Friday between 8.30am and 5pm.

The expanded capacity will support the Emergency Department and paediatric areas with clinical liaison and assessment in hours which CAMHS were not previously available.

It is anticipated that the extended service will contribute to reduced wait times in the ED for young people in the evenings and on weekends, and potentially reduce the length of admission.

The CAMHS team will also, where appropriate, provide 7-day follow-up to child and adolescent mental health patients after discharge.

This expansion is an important step in building a more responsive and accessible service.

Meanwhile, our wider CAMHS reforms continue to progress well after we committed $41.2 million over four years in the 2021-22 budget to fully fund phase one and phase two recommendations from the CAMHS review.

As part of this, a once-in-a-generation recruitment campaign is currently underway to hire approximately 60 full-time equivalent CAMHS professionals to staff specialist clinical positions across the State.

Intensive efforts to cast the net locally, nationally and internationally are starting to yield results with the arrival of the first international CAMHS nurse in Tasmania and additional CAMHS nurse visas recently granted.

Recruitment will support several new specialist clinical streams currently in development, including Youth Mental Health, Youth Forensic Mental Health and Intensive Mental Health Service for Children in Out of Home Care.

The Tasmanian Liberal Government is absolutely committed to providing quality mental health treatment and care to young people who need it, and the significant work underway through the CAMHS reforms is a turning point in the delivery of mental health services in our State for children, adolescents, their families and carers.