John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, for putting this issue on the agenda for debate. I also wish her well in her new office. She has a deep interest in many issues and I am sure she will do a good job in this area.

The first line in the document See Change speaks about changing minds about mental health problems in Ireland. Minds have been changed in recent years. I grew up in Enniscorthy town where St. Senan's Psychiatric Hospital is located. When I started attending the local CBS school the hospital was surrounded by huge walls. Many of us young children at the time said the hospital was where the mad people were. It was only when we grew older that we realised it was not where mad people went but where people with a mental illness went. The nurses and doctors in the hospital worked hard, in difficult times, to try to change the perception of mental illness in that area of County Wexford. They also tried to work on cures for people. If one has a physical illness, one can get a cure and it is important to convey the message that if one has a mental illness, there are people to help one on one's way back into being part of society.

As Deputy Wallace mentioned, Wexford has experienced its share of suicides in recent years. It probably has one of the highest rates of suicide in the country. It is very alarming. In the past four months nine people, most of them young, have died from suicide. It is a great concern. The county has also experienced some terrible tragedies in the last two years in which entire families died. That engendered a doom and gloom in the county. Among many communities there was a huge sense of hopelessness and of not knowing what to do. People were seeking answers as to why such tragedies happened.

It is important to realise that suicide knows no boundaries. An analysis of the suicides that occurred in Wexford show that some of the people came from very well off families while others were from families that were not so well off. The people concerned were both young and old. There is no real pattern, which is, perhaps, one of the reasons it is so difficult to deal with the problem of suicide and to find solutions. The one pattern that emerges is that suicide occurs mainly in the male population. That is the case in County Wexford and I am sure it is the case in other counties also.

I acknowledge the work Deputy Dan Neville, both as a Senator and Deputy, has been doing in this area through the years. In this House he has single-handedly tried to raise awareness of the issue of suicide. We must also confront the fact that a stigma was attached to suicide in the past and we are trying to get away from that. It certainly was not good. It nearly turned people and families into outcasts in communities where suicide was involved and this was an unfair way of dealing with the issue.

St. Senan's hospital is now more or less closed, although it is not closed in the way we wanted it to be and I hope the Minister will do something that the previous Minister from my party did not do. We had many arguments and rows about the closure of St. Senan's hospital and the lack of an acute admission unit for those suffering from depression in the county. A Vision for Change spoke of facilities within the local area, but in recent months in Wexford, given that St. Senan's is closed, patients must now go to Newcastle in Wicklow or to Waterford. We fought the good fight with the then Minister of State, Mr. John Maloney, and we were not successful. The matter needs to be revisited, and I do not say that in any political way. As a group of Oireachtas Members, we made a strong case for the retention of the admission unit in Wexford. A new 50-bed unit is to be built at Wexford hospital over the next year or two and I ask the Minister to look seriously at providing what we were promised - a designated unit within the county where people can go. It is a long way from north County Wexford, or, indeed, from any part of Wexford, to Waterford. In addition, the Waterford building is totally unsuitable. Already in the past couple of weeks those referred to Waterford have been returned within an hour or two without getting the treatment they deserve.

With the Ceann Comhairle's permission, I will refer to a letter I wrote recently to the HSE in Wexford on behalf of a mother who contacted me about her daughter, who was recently a patient in Wexford General Hospital because she was suicidal. She was sent home without any proper care or backup support from the HSE. She was informed leaving the hospital that a HSE liaison officer would call to see her on the Monday - I think she went into the hospital on a Friday. That did not happen despite the fact that she was still very ill. Eventually, after a number of telephone calls to the HSE in Wexford, the family were informed that she would be seen on 14 April, that is, two weeks after she was admitted to Wexford hospital because she was suicidal. The family are concerned that the hospital would send her home in her condition and that the HSE personnel in Wexford ignored their calls for help. They are seeking an explanation and that is what I wrote to the head of the HSE in Wexford. This is a common complaint in the south east, that people are not getting A proper service from the HSE.

Depression does not stop at 5 o'clock on a Friday evening. I am not criticising the new Government because we did not deal with it either, but every county needs some kind of contact point, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, where those suffering from depression or suicidal tendencies would have a form of backup service. General practitioners and Caredoc do their best to provide some kind of service, but it is important, if somebody is admitted to a hospital and is sent back home, that there is some contact point within the HSE so families can express their concerns or a matter can be dealt with as quickly as possible.

A number of organisations have been set up in recent years because of the situation in Wexford. These include Touched by Suicide in Enniscorthy, a voluntary group which set up its own good-as-new clothes shop. It raises funds and helps out families, making moneys available for those visiting hospitals, etc. It also raises awareness. Each month, or every two months, it holds an all-night candle-lit vigil on Vinegar Hill to make people aware that there are groups and organisations to which they can turn to talk and seek help.

The mental health association is another voluntary group in Wexford - I am sure it is right across the country - led by Mr. Joe Casey, the former director of nursing at St. Senan's hospital. It does tremendous work promoting mental health and a renewal model. Representatives visit schools, organisations and groups to talk about mental health and the need to see it as something that should not been hidden away but brought to the front, and also that if one has a problem, help and support is available.

They have also led the way in closing wards in St. Senan's, placing people in communities and asking local authorities to provide houses. This is where I and other politicians in Wexford have been deeply involved, particularly as members of the county council and the town councils. I remember everyone was dumbfounded when the first request was made to Enniscorthy urban council to provide two houses to the mental health association for patients who wanted to leave St. Senan's. We took the decision to make the two houses available in the town, in a place called Moran Park, and the former patients fitted into the community. As a result, we have houses in Oilgate, Glenbrian and different parts of the county where people reside in independent-living accommodation, having left St. Senan's. People realised the former patients were not some kind of monsters, but ordinary individuals who wanted to live in the community. With the backup of the outreach nurses, they are able to live in and become part of the community. They are involved in the local GAA clubs, go out for a drink and participate in whatever other social activities they want. Great credit is due to the mental health association in that area, and particularly to Mr. Casey and others who have been working almost full-time since they retired from St. Senan's to ensure these people are looked after. They also ensure that such houses continue to be built and allocated by local authorities and also that land is made available for the mental health association to build houses.

I was struck by the recent announcement of President Mary McAleese when she set up a social initiative with the GAA and the president of the GAA, Mr. Christy Cooney, a Cork man - although, in fairness, the IRFU, FAI and GAA have also been working flat-out to help people in this area. I am glad to say that my club in Enniscorthy, Rapparees Starlights, was one of the first to implement the social initiative for older men, although the women were not happy that there was a men-only section within the club. The 100 people at the social initiative launch in Enniscorthy were each presented with certificates. They were all over the age of 50 and they have held a number of meetings since then. Last week, they went to Croke Park by bus and then went for tea in the afternoon with President Mary McAleese. The group meets on a regular basis and some of them have rejoined the club they left a number of years ago. They are now coaching young people and being actively involved again.

We need to promote such initiatives. I would like to see the FAI, the IRFU and the GAA coming together to launch a campaign similar to the road accident prevention campaigns. We are very much aware of deaths due to car accidents, but figures in recent years show that the number of people dying from suicide is probably 100% greater than the numbers killed on the roads, but there is not the same awareness. That is an issue we need to deal with and there needs to be more television programmes about it. We need more high-profile persons involved in raising the problems of suicide and depression because it is an issue that can be dealt with. It is important that we send out the message that there is always someone there to talk to. In our own small way, we try to do this in GAA, soccer and rugby clubs and other organisations. If one speaks at a function, one says that people should remember that there is always someone there to talk to. We need to get that message out.

Many Deputies have outlined the facts and figures and I will not go through all of those.

The stark reality is that 527 deaths by suicide were registered in 2009, which is probably twice the number killed in road accidents. We need to highlight these issues and we must be able to tell those who suffer from depression that help is available for them. Carn House in Enniscorthy does a tremendous job but we also need to consider developing a 24/7 service through out country. I accept that would be expensive but perhaps it could be developed in conjunction with funding from pharmaceutical companies and the other organisations which are making huge amounts of money from the Department of Health and Children. The service could be rolled out as a public private partnership.

Some people believe there are too many individual organisations working in this area and perhaps we need to pull them together but we can deal with this issue if we take the right attitude. Suicides bring great heartache to communities. I do not have all the answers but we can work together to solve the problem and I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's views. It is important, however, that a 24/7 service within the HSE be considered.

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