Referral patterns for specialist child and adolescent mental health services in the Republic of Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with 2019 and 2018.

Background: Countries worldwide are experiencing a third wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Government-imposed restrictive measures continue with undetermined effects on physical and mental health.

Aims: To compare child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) referrals over 11 months (January-November) in 2020, 2019 and 2018 and examine any impact the different phases of the COVID-19 restrictions might have on referral rates.

Tackling a long waiting list in a child and adolescent mental health service.

Objective: Long waiting lists have a negative impact on client satisfaction, staff moral and referrer's opinion of the service. The aim of this project was to decrease a waiting list from a maximum wait of more than one year to a wait of no more than six weeks.

Method: We introduced three simultaneous initiatives to decrease a long waiting list; (i) an individually led triage system (ii) setting-up an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) specialist team and (iii) division of the residual waiting list between team members.