Principal Social Worker, Camhs

Mental Health Services in HSE Southwest serves a total population of 689,750 (census 2022) over a large geographic area.

The services provided span community, outpatient, inpatient and residential care with a focus on the delivery of recovery orientated supports. A number of specialised Mental Health Teams are in place in both Cork and Kerry. For the purpose of service delivery Cork has 10 sector based Community Adult Mental Health Teams with 8 CAMHS teams and Kerry has 3 sector based Community Adult Teams with 2 CAMHS teams. Three Area Administrators are in place over Cork & Kerry (Cork South, Cork North and Kerry).

The current vacancies are available in the Cork Child and Adolescent Mental Health service.

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service is a dynamic service that provides a specialist mental health service to those aged up to 18 years old who have moderate to severe mental health disorders that require the input of a specialist multidisciplinary mental health team (MDT).

The MDT consists of staff from the disciplines of social work, social care, mental health nursing, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychology, and psychiatry, as well as experienced and committed administrative staff.

Eist Linn is the Regional Inpatient Unit covering the South and South East former CHO 4 and CHO 5. Eist Linn is one of a network of four HSE funded Child and Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Units nationally, and is an Approved Centre under the Mental Health Act, 2001 and has been a member of the Quality Network of Inpatient CAMHS (QNIC) for a number of years.

The purpose of Eist Linn is to offer assessment and treatment to children/young people up to the age of 18 years, with severe and often complex mental health needs, when outpatient or day-patient care has ceased to meet the needs of that child/young person. Inpatient services should be seen as a last resort, where all other interventions have been exhausted.

Eist Linn provides assessment and evidence based treatment in order to bring about the change necessary to support the child/young person’s discharge home to the care of their family and their local Community CAMHS team. The inpatient programme offers a comprehensive recovery focused treatment approach and education programme operating within a therapeutic milieu.