Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Joint Committee On Health

General Scheme of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Neasa HouriganNeasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. That is fantastic because Ms Vidal has slightly covered one of the issues that I wanted to follow up on with Shine. I want to come back to the issue of allocated key workers with Shine and some of the other witnesses. To stick on that family aspect, I have two follow-up questions. First, Ms Vidal has somewhat covered the issue of the definition of the family and she said Shine has broadened it out to include supporters. In terms of accessing services and getting medical professionals to engage with a supporter or family member, who decides or signs off on the definition? Is it the person at the centre who decides “This person is considered my family or my supporter”? Does Shine envisage that there might be some problem or difficulty with medical professionals accepting somebody as an advocate or supporter in that context?

The second question is a more practical one. I am trying to get in my head what that kind of family engagement or support would look like. For example, in the creation or development of a care plan where somebody is probably on the road to recovery and is well able to become involved in the development of that, in a practical way, what would Shine envisage as the family level of engagement in terms of understanding what the road ahead looks like for people?

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