The High Court has approved further settlements in the cases of children affected by their treatment by South Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
The court heard thousands of euro was added by a mediator reviewing the cases over the way they and their families were treated by the service.
The court approved awards of €77,500 to a now 16-year-old boy and €30,000 to a now 13-year-old boy.
The 16-year-old was referred to CAMHS when he was five years old and the following year he was diagnosed with ADHD.
It was claimed the boy was inappropriately started on treatment with Risperidone, an anti-psychotic drug, in October 2019 for a period of 14 months and that there was no no rationale for this treatment explained to his parents. The boy frequently fell asleep at school and also had weight gain.
In his determination, mediator Hugh Mohan SC said the boy – who has now improved considerably – is entitled to €70,000 compensation but there must also be an additional sum because of the way the boy was treated throughout the system.
“Instead of being monitored and overseen, he and his family were poorly treated with their concerns not taken seriously,” Mr Mohan said.
Mr Mohan noted that “the system” did engage with the boy through other doctors from 2020 on, which improved his state, and therefore an additional €7,500 was a reasonable uplift, bringing the final settlement figure to €77,500.
In the second case, the now 13-year-old boy was referred to CAMHS four years ago and was diagnosed with ADHD.
Mr Mohan said the boy was exposed to a dose of Risperidone for eight months unnecessarily and his parents suffered significant distress, while the non-treatment of the boy’s ADHD symptoms caused more difficulties for him at school and at home.
Assessing compensation at €25,000, Mr Mohan said that instead of being monitored and overseen, the boy and his family were “poorly treated” and their concerns not taken seriously, which warranted an additional sum of €5,000, bringing the total award to €30,000.
A State compensation scheme was set up in 2022 after a review found that the care received by 240 young people from the HSE-run service did not meet the standards it should have, and it detailed significant harm to 46 children.
