Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. The former CEO of Mental Health Reform, Dr. Shari McDaid, has advised successive Ministers of State with responsibility for mental health, senior civil servants and senior HSE executives on solutions to improve the mental health service. She has recommended the organisation of a cross-governmental cross-society task force to develop the country's mental health recovery plan, with a commitment that the plan would be published within six months. The groundwork for such a plan has been laid in the review of the national mental health policy, A Vision for Change. The review of the latter was completed at the end of 2019 and the refreshed version is awaiting publication. It should be published immediately in order to provide the framework for planning the services that will prevent people from developing severe mental health difficulties and help them to recover their mental health and well-being after the pandemic. Dr. McDaid is asking the Government to commit to increasing protected funding to implement the mental health recovery plan. Before the pandemic occurred, she also recommended rapidly scaling up and implementing the use of digital technology in mental healthcare at primary and secondary levels. The HSE had been working on piloting online mental health services for several years. A major effort must now be made to scale up these initiatives in order to increase the reach and capacity of services so that anyone who needs an intervention by a mental health professional can get it quickly.

Dr. McDaid states that we must embed trauma-informed approaches across public services. She notes that common sense tells us that many people of all ages, from young children to those in their later years, will have experienced personal trauma during the pandemic. In a sense, we all have. For those children whose families have struggled to cope with the isolation and who face sudden economic hardship, the threat of losing their homes, domestic abuse, bereavement or separation from a loved one who is dying, the personal trauma must be quite profound. Every teacher, school staff member, garda, health professional, social welfare officer, housing officer and provider of social care needs to know how to respond appropriately to their service users so as not to retraumatise them.

What plans are in place for the implementation of Dr. McDaid's recommendations in order to streamline the mental health service for the new challenges it faces?