If you are worried about your child's mental health, the system can look confusing from the outside. In practice there is a fairly clear ladder of support, running from free, no-referral-needed services right up to specialist CAMHS teams, and knowing how it fits together can help you find the right door faster.
Start with your GP
For most families, the first stop is the family doctor. Jigsaw's guide for parents recommends bringing your young person to the GP and explaining what you have noticed, changes in mood, sleep, appetite or interest in things, however big or small they seem. The GP may ask about low mood, anxiety, or thoughts of self-harm, and it is important to share everything, even if it feels difficult.
Your GP does one of two things: they either help directly, refer to a primary care service, or, if the difficulties are complex and moderate to severe, refer on to CAMHS. A referral can also come from another health or social care professional working with your child, such as a school counsellor or psychologist, according to the HSE's official CAMHS referrals page.
This GP-first approach matters because it means most young people are matched with the right level of support without needing to go through a specialist service. According to the Department of Health, roughly 90% of mental health needs are successfully treated in primary care settings, with only around 2% of the population needing the specialist secondary care that CAMHS provides.
What happens after a CAMHS referral
If your GP does refer you to CAMHS, the team will review the referral letter, which explains the difficulties your child is experiencing, according to the HSE. They may contact you, your child's school, or a previous support service for more information, always with permission where relevant.
If CAMHS is the right service, you will get an appointment letter with a location, an explanation of what a CAMHS team is, and what to expect at the first appointment, the HSE says. That letter will also include an estimated waiting time, which can vary by area depending on local demand, and the HSE is upfront that in some cases it can take up to a year for a first appointment.
CAMHS decisions on timing follow the CAMHS Operational Guideline 2025, the service's newly updated national framework for how referrals are clinically prioritised. If your situation gets worse while waiting, the HSE advises contacting the CAMHS team directly, or your GP, to flag the change, since your priority level can be reassessed.
While you wait, the HSE also points families toward organisations that provide support in the meantime and self-help resources, recognising that a waiting period does not have to mean no support at all.
How big the waiting lists actually are
Money going into CAMHS has been rising sharply: the service now receives approximately 191 million euro a year, an increase of almost 40% over the past four years, according to a written Dáil answer from the Minister of State at the Department of Health in June 2026. Budget 2026 alone added 10 million euro in enhancements, including a new crisis response pathway for children and young people, a digital single point of access for youth mental health services, and 18 additional CAMHS acute inpatient beds nationally.
Despite that investment, waiting lists remain a live political issue, with opposition TDs regularly tabling parliamentary questions asking for county-by-county breakdowns of children waiting more than 12 months for a first CAMHS assessment. The Minister for Mental Health has said she personally visited all 21 CAMHS teams nationwide to press Regional Executive Officers on filling unfilled posts and cutting waiting times, describing it as one of her main priorities in the role.
For a family currently waiting, the practical takeaway is that funding and staffing are genuinely increasing, but demand for youth mental health support is rising too, so a long wait in a particular county does not necessarily mean nothing is being done, it often reflects local demand outpacing even fast-growing capacity.
The free and low-cost public options worth knowing about
CAMHS is only one part of the public picture, and it is specifically for young people with moderate to severe difficulties who need multidisciplinary team care, per the HSE and SpunOut. For milder or emerging concerns, other free options exist without needing a CAMHS-level referral.
Jigsaw provides free, walk-in-friendly early intervention mental health support for young people aged 12 to 25, and it is directly funded as part of Ireland's youth mental health investment, with two new early intervention Jigsaw services added under Budget 2026, according to Dáil statements from Minister of State Mary Butler in June 2026.
One of those new services opened its doors in Waterford on 31 August 2026, the first Jigsaw service in a city that had never had one before, with outreach planned to west Waterford, south Kilkenny and south Wexford. Jigsaw CEO Joseph Duffy said early, local and accessible mental health support 'can change the trajectory of a young person's life', while also cautioning in the charity's own pre-budget submission that a 39% rise in referrals in 2026 alone means further investment will be needed to stop waiting times creeping up again.
SpunOut.ie offers free, fact-checked information written for and reviewed by young people, including clear explainers on how CAMHS referrals work and what to expect, and can be a good first stop simply to understand the system before contacting a GP.
Primary care psychology, delivered through HSE primary care teams, is another free public route for mild to moderate difficulties that do not need CAMHS-level intervention, and a GP or other primary care professional can refer directly into it, sitting exactly where the Department of Health says the bulk of mental health need is successfully met.
How private options compare
Private child psychology, psychotherapy or psychiatry is also available in Ireland, and some families choose this route where they can access it, for a shorter wait to a first appointment, and it can run alongside public options or be used for a private assessment while a family remains on a public list. It works best as an addition to, rather than a replacement for, the free supports above.. Costs vary widely by practitioner and location, and families considering this route should ask upfront about fees, whether a written report is included, and whether the practitioner is registered with a recognised professional body such as the Psychological Society of Ireland.
The key practical difference is speed versus specialism. Public services such as Jigsaw and primary care psychology are free and typically faster to access for mild to moderate concerns, while CAMHS is the service with the multidisciplinary expertise, psychiatry, psychology, nursing, and social work all in one team, for more complex or severe needs, and this is worth bearing in mind when deciding where to start.
Families do not have to choose only one path. A GP can refer to primary care psychology and CAMHS simultaneously if needed, or a family already engaged with Jigsaw can still be referred onward to CAMHS by their GP if things escalate. The system is designed to let people move between these levels of support as needs change, rather than being locked into a single track.
The Bottom Line
The clearest first step for any family is the same: talk to your GP. From there, Ireland has a genuine ladder of free supports, primary care psychology, Jigsaw, SpunOut's information resources, and specialist CAMHS teams for more complex needs, with ongoing investment adding new teams and access points through 2025 and 2026. Knowing the shape of that ladder in advance means less time spent guessing, and a faster route to the right kind of help.
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