Mr. Ian Power:

To pick up the point about stigma, we have had a really productive conversation around mental health over the past five or six years such that people feel a lot more comfortable talking about it. However, it is in a very sanitised way. We still have an issue with stigma around mental illnesses and some of the most severe mental illnesses and we need to do a lot more work to educate the public at large about illnesses like schizophrenia and other illnesses that people still do not understand and, therefore, still stigmatise. Coming back to the point about where to invest, I agree both simultaneously, in terms of prevention and acute services.

It is really important to point out that e-mental health is not a panacea. There are particular applications of e-mental health that are appropriate. We need to learn from the UK's experience, particularly the NHS, which has created a whole NHS digital team relating to mental health. The NHS has funded that research programme significantly to understand what types of e-mental health interventions work for particular issues. The learning there has been that one cannot design a one-size-fits-all e-mental health response. It needs to be individual with regard to the experience or the particular condition or issue experienced by people. There have been a number of key targeted responses for generalised anxiety disorder. Augmented reality has shown some real promise in responding to psychosis, so that is really important.

We have been talking about how lots of people have a positive experience of the mental health service. When people do not, we focus on the negative to the point where we potentially deter people from seeking help. We really need to start looking at being solutions-focused when problems arise, not dwelling on what has happened and trying to identify how to fix the problem. A number of service improvement projects are in train within the HSE, not least the one relating to CAMHS. The review of the standard operating procedure is ongoing. We need to build those services up because they contain staff members who are becoming demoralised by the public narrative relating to mental health services. Yes, we can all do better but we need to change the frame we put on this conversation.