Children who need to be admitted to mental health facilities are still being sent to adult units, a new report has shown.

According to the 2014 Annual Report of the Mental Health Commission (MHC), last year saw 431 admissions of 357 children to approved mental health centres nationwide. However, 89 of these admissions - that is 20% - were to adult units.

The report did acknowledge that this represents a fall in the number of children being admitted to adult units. In 2013, 98 admissions (23%) involved children in adults units, while in 2012, the figure was 107 (24%).

However, according to MHC chairman, John Saunders, ‘the commission is concerned that there are serious issues to be addressed in relation to the admission of children to adult services'.

The report noted that when a child is admitted to an adult unit, the MHC must be given specific details about the circumstances of the admission. The service must provide details about ‘what efforts have been made to admit the child to an age-appropriate approved centre', and what are the plans for this.

"In the case of 23% (21/89) of admissions to adult units, the child was subsequently discharged and admitted to a child unit when a bed became available. However, the percentage of admissions where a child was subsequently admitted to a child unit was lower in 2014 than in 2013 - 31% (31/98)," the report stated.

It noted that children admitted to adults centres tended to be older than those admitted to child centres. Last year, the average age of children who were admitted to adult units was 16.4 years, while the average age of those admitted to child units was 15.6 years.

Almost all children who were under the age of 15 were admitted to child units. However, the report emphasised that there ‘appears to be a particular difficulty for 16 and 17-year-olds in accessing age-appropriate mental health services'.

The report also revealed that two in three child admissions involve girls and the average length of stay during 2014 was 54 days, although those admitted to child units tended to stay much longer than those in adult units - 66 days versus 10 days.

According to the MHC, it has ‘consistently highlighted the lack of sufficient child and adolescen' inpatient and day hospital facilities'. As of the end of last year, there were just 89 beds in six child and adolescent units for the entire country.

The MHC report can be viewed here