Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 November 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion

Photo of Danny Healy-RaeDanny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad I have the opportunity to discus this important issue. I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their help. Many families and communities in Kerry have been ravaged by mental health issues, resulting in suicide and the loss of family members, which has rocked families and communities to the core. We are sick and tired of the Government talking up the financial improvement in the country. If it has improved the country's finances, this has not been shown in the mental health services in Kerry. We are at a very low ebb at present and there does not seem to be any accountability for what has happened.

A couple of years ago - I had not been long a Deputy - a 20 year old presented in a local hospital. I will not name the hospital because I do not want to personalise healthcare workers who are doing their best in the conditions in which they have to work. This young man was in a very bad state on a Friday. He was being released and the family was so concerned, they came on the phone bawling crying to me. They said they could not imagine how they were to take care of him for the weekend or who would be responsible for him because six years earlier, his father had committed suicide in the back yard. They were very upset. Luckily enough, I got to talk to a particular nurse in that hospital who was not dealing with mental health. I ensured he was kept in there for the weekend and the following weekend. That man is perfect to the world today.

Another whose grandmother contacted me was mot so lucky. It was the same kind of story. He went in there for the weekend feeling very down. He was let out on that Friday and he is no longer with us. That family are very upset because they feel he could have been saved.

Life is so important. I had an uncle who said, "There's only the breadth of your nail between being dead and being alive." In cases like this we are losing people. We have lost so many through suicide. There was a lot of talk about a Bill that went through recently to save lives on the road, but we must try to save lives in whatever area it is, and we are not doing it. A few years ago, three boys committed suicide while in care, which should not happen. It is shameful that happened and it was not so long ago.

I read a report Mental Health Commission report by Dr. Finnerty. In respect of services in Kerry and Cork, it stated that while there are supposed to be seven dedicated rehabilitation and recovery teams in the team, there are just two poorly staffed teams in place to cover a population of 680,000 people in both counties. The report stated that to deal with demand the HSE was using an out-of-area service, a model that has been strongly criticised internationally.

Dr. Finnerty also said that in the course of her research she spoke to several people with enduring mental health illness who were frustrated and angry and were stuck in a system that was not meeting their needs. Because of the unmet need for rehabilitation, many people with enduring mental illness have repeated admissions to inpatient psychiatric units and are then discharged, only to be re-admitted when things breakdown again - the so-called revolving door of admissions. The short-sightedness of not providing adequate mental health rehabilitation services, from both a human rights and a financial viewpoint, is quite astounding.

Dr. Finnerty said that in some cases patients were moved away from their homes and local treatment teams for up to two years. The commission has asked the HSE for an action plan to address the concerns raised in the report. Only two poorly-staffed rehabilitation teams are in place to serve a population of 689,750, though the A Vision for Change mental health strategy states that a minimum of seven is needed. According to A Vision for Change, 70 nurses are required but only six are available. Some 340 people in Kerry and Cork are living with mental illness in institutional care, which is considered a high proportion of the population. Major capital spend is needed for one 24-hour-----

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