Mr. Paul Gilligan:

St. Patrick's mental health services is Ireland's largest independent not-for-profit mental health service provider. It is committed to providing the highest quality of mental health care, promoting mental health and advocating for the rights of people experiencing mental health difficulties. In 2015, the service had over 3,000 inpatient admissions, over 14,300 day-care attendances and over 14,600 visits to its Dean clinics. The organisation runs an extensive advocacy programme, the highlights of which are the Walk in My Shoes and Mind Your Selfie campaigns. It also runs a comprehensive service user involvement and training and research programme. We welcome the opportunity to make a submission to the development of the new health strategy. We would like to thank the Oireachtas committee for the opportunity to make this presentation. We are eager to work in partnership with the Government and all key stakeholders to form and deliver on a new mental health care strategy. The prevalence of mental health problems in Ireland is well documented, with one in seven adults experiencing a mental health difficulty in the past year. Recent studies suggest that young people in Ireland may have a higher rate of mental health problems than similarly aged young people in other countries.

St. Patrick's mental health services believes Ireland should be committed to the establishment of a world-class mental health service. Such a service should be built on human rights principles, with a core emphasis on service user participation. In our view, the right to be given the opportunity to live a mentally healthy life should be enshrined in legislation. Everyone should have access to basic mental health care services as a right. The exact services to which people should be entitled to access should be set out in law so that it is clear to service providers and service users that legal obligations exist, and that a right of remedy exists where these obligations are not met. It is essential for any new mental health care strategy to be grounded in a recovery model in which service user empowerment and choice is paramount. These principles pertain particularly to young people, whose existing constitutional rights to appropriate mental health care need to be recognised and realised. The funding model for any new strategy needs to be grounded in principles of value, which we define as outcomes per euro spent. No strategy will be successful unless the existing stigma surrounding mental health within Irish society is acknowledged and tackled. This cannot be achieved unless all stakeholders work together.