Mr. Tom Maher:

Deputy Buckley expressed a concern for individuals who present at an accident and emergency departments. In any process-driven industry, and mental health care is one of those industries, the key to continual quality improvement is standardisation. We believe it is strategically imperative to develop standards for situations when persons present themselves at an accident and emergency department. There should be a clear clinical pathway with an infrastructural basis available that does not involve saying to a person: "Go home until you're sober." If we standardise the approaches to care, which is what the strategy should consider doing, it will lead to improved access to care and people getting the care that they need much quicker. The notion of standardisation and developing care pathways for a variety of different presentations should be key in a mental health strategy.