Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Future of Mental Health Care

Update on the Next Stages of the Review of A Vision for Change: Department of Health

9:00 am

Chairman:

May I intervene? Our decision, as a committee, will be made after we hear everything from Mr. Kane and in private. We do have to ask each other where we are going to go with this committee because its remit sounds very similar to that of Mr. Kane.

Before I open the discussion to the rest of the members, may I ask two questions? A Vision for Change has always been about early intervention, particularly primary care. I note that there are no general practitioners in the group. I cannot understand why. Mr. Kane talked about experts. Of course they are experts but, besides Shari McDaid, are they mainly HSE employees? If that is the case, we surely need not only experts who come in to have an input but also a broadening of the group to include general practitioners or other primary care professionals who could advise on what is required.

Is the oversight group rebranding A Vision for Change or producing a brand new document?

One of the concerns of nearly all members is that we are doing reviews over and over again. Mr. Kane stated this strategy is for the next ten years. A Vision for Change was also a ten-year strategy. What will happen ten years from now?

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