James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mental illness is a private matter with very public consequences. It is devastating when people's lives collapse around them and it can tear families apart. The reconfiguration of mental health services is key to the implementation of A Vision for Change. I welcome the fact that this comprehensive change programme is underway within a number of the mental health areas around the country.

It is important that we address this crisis by giving mental health increased focus and attention and by reducing the stigma of mental health. This stigma has forced many to live in shame rather than seek support, even as their lives unravelled.

Mental health promotion remains the most underdeveloped area of health promotion in Ireland. There is an increasing recognition that there is no health without mental health. The need for positive mental health promotion is universal and relevant to all of us. It is important that, as policy makers, we comprehend that mental health and mental well-being are basic issues of everyday life. In doing so, we must place a greater emphasis on promoting positive mental health.

Positive mental health demands co-ordinated action by all concerned, including the Government, the HSE, various social and economic sectors, voluntary organisations and the various media outlets. We must develop a range of mental health strategies to increase public awareness and change public attitudes towards understanding mental illness in addition to the importance of maintaining positive mental health.

The stigma against the mentally ill is so powerful that it has been codified for years into our laws. Few people outside the mental health system even realise it. This systemic discrimination in medicare laws has accelerated the emptying of State psychiatric hospitals, leaving many of the sickest and most vulnerable patients with few places to turn.

The system is in poor shape, starved of funding while neglecting thousands of people across the country each year. The failure to provide treatment and supportive services to people with mental illness both in the community and in local hospitals has overburdened emergency beds, crowded our jails and left untreated patients to fend for themselves on our streets.

The State routinely fails to provide the most basic services for people with mental illness, something the country would never tolerate for patients with cancer and other physical disorders. The health system also discriminates against those with mental illness by limiting the number of days during which patients can receive inpatient psychiatric care. The system imposes no such limits for physical health. Mental health is a separate but unequal system.

Many people have died and have been disabled because of inadequate care or suffered from mental illness for years before getting help. These delays have led to frequent panic attacks, drinking and drug use, abusive relationships, suicide attempts and crime convictions. We need a comprehensive review of the country's mental system to ensure the Government's resources are being targeted effectively so that persons with mental illness and their families have access to treatment and support services.

I urge the Government to allocate a special fund for suicide prevention programmes that would raise awareness about how to deal with those who are suicidal and ensure services are available for people in crisis. We must ensure early intervention by improving access to modern mental health services in the community. I commend the various voluntary organisations, including the Samaritans and Aware, on the great work they do in this area. It is important that we focus our attention on mental health by reducing the stigma associated with mental ill-health. Longford-Westmeath Regional Hospital is deemed to be one of the best performing hospitals in the country but even though €57 million was ring-fenced for phase 2 of its development plan in 2003, the project never got off the ground. The development plan includes an acute psychiatric unit with 36 beds. This was subsequent to the closure of St. Loman's hospital. I ask the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Alex White, the current position of this project.

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