My name is Dr Maeve Doyle and I am a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.
I set up the Child and Adolescent Mental Health service (CAMHS) in a rural catchment area and worked there from 2000 until 2019.
I have been involved in the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland since its foundation in 2009 .I was elected to the position of Chair of the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2011 and held this office until 2015.
During my tenure as Faculty Chair, I was one of two nominees from the College accepted by the Minister to serve on the Mental Health Commission for a period of five years. Our role on the Commission was to oversee the Inspection Process, whereby 63 “Approved Centres” for the detention of people with serious mental disorders are visited annually and need to be in full compliance with Mental Health Legislation and Regulations.
As a Board, we continued to advocate for broadening of the Mental Health Commission’s remit in particular for the inspection of community mental health services where the bulk of therapeutic interventions are delivered.
I was a member of the national CAMHS Standard Operating Procedure Review Project Group. Our role was to review the original document and consult widely with service users, family members, front line staff and management working within the Health Service Executive mental health services. This resulted in a re-drafting and subsequent publication of a CAMHS operational guideline in June 2019.
I was also a member of the Clinical Advisory Group which worked jointly with the Health Service Executive National Working Group on developing a Programme for Early Intervention in Psychosis which was published in June 2019.
I took on the role of Director of External Affairs and Public Education within the College of Psychiatrists’ of Ireland in May 2019. This involves developing relationships with relevant stake holders, such as Ministers, the Mental Health Commission, Child Protection Services, the Department of Health and Mental Health Reform etc., with the ultimate goal of influencing and promoting the development of high quality mental health services for all. Another important role is to increase the understanding of psychiatry within the public domain and to engage in writing articles and giving interviews to assist with this.
I was elected to the Board of ESCAP – the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2015 and am currently serving as Board Secretary.
I was involved in publishing a Position paper on the mental health of children and adolescent refugees, which was subsequently adopted by the National Associations for child psychiatry in Europe, including the College of Psychiatrists’ of Ireland.
I have given a number of talks as an ESCAP Board member to the National Associations including one entitled “How Irish psychiatry withstood the recession”
One of my aspirations in being a Board member of ESCAP is to make the organisation more relevant to my National Association by providing a European perspective together with possible solutions to issues, such as training, research, mental health of refugees and the impact of Covid-19 on mental health services.
