Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 21 January 2016

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

Wellness, Well-being and Mental Health: Discussion

9:30 am

Photo of Sandra McLellanSandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Breslin and Dr. D'Alton here this morning and thank them both so much for their presentations.

Wishing no disrespect to Dr. D'Alton, on this occasion I want to highlight what others have said, that it is important that we have role models, particularly for young people. Since Mr. Breslin is so well known, he is an ideal role model. Many will tune in here today just because he is here.

I also want to highlight that in our role we meet many in our constituency offices who have mental health issues and who encounter considerable difficulties navigating the system. To be honest, when they come to us, we ourselves encounter difficulties navigating the system and I cannot even comprehend how difficult it is for them to deal with this red tape when they are suffering from mental health issues.

We also find that many whom we encounter are not trained to deal with those with mental health issues. That is something on which we need to focus as well. Many families with young children find it extremely difficult to access services. While it may be easy to access services in some parts of the country, I can assure the committee that in other parts of the country it is extremely difficult. If we are ill any day of the week, for instance, with the flu, we can ring up and make an appointment to see our GP, but I believe we should have a service that goes hand in hand with a GP service to allow somebody who is feeling mentally unwell to make an appointment for a consultation in the same way as one visits one's GP. It should be as easy as that but it is not.

In this day and age, with social media contributing to it as well, there are many who are being bullied and intimidated. I refer to young people in school and employees in the workplace. While the schools and companies have anti-bullying policies, they often do not deal with the problem and the person who is being bullied is often perceived as being the problem because he or she is constantly making the complaints. That is something we need to get to grips with as well.

Mr. Breslin stated in his presentation that he has learned to control, respect and even strengthen his mind's capacity to cope. How did he do that? Did he have to seek professional help or did he manage to do it himself? If he sought professional help, at what age or at what point did he decide to do that or what made him do that? Maybe it was Dr. D'Alton who mentioned in his presentation that we need education on this in the school curriculum, on which I think everybody agrees. Should peers or those with personal experience of mental health lead that education programme?

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