Mr. Derek Chambers:

If I could address the wider point as well, we have been talking about mental health in this country from the first public mental health campaign in 2007. Since then the most important thing for us in generating that conversation around mental health is to have places where people can go if they are concerned about their mental health. If there is an increased awareness of anxiety or depression, where does someone go? Through yourmentalhealth.ieand organisations like SpunOut, we are working off a layered care model of support which in the first instance provides people with information and signposting. That is about increasing people's mental health literacy in order that they know where they can go for support. It is really important that we provide support relevant to the need of that young person or anyone in society. From that information and signposting and the public messaging, we also promote some self-help resources such as the Minding Your Wellbeing and Stress Control programmes on the HSE website. From there, things like person-to-person supports have become really important. We can not overstate the importance of these supports because early intervention is so much better for any human being in terms of their journey with mental health.

There are much data around the uptake of services like TEXT 50808 but I know the question was about psychiatry and mental health services. For us, the critical point is to ensure resourcing of primary care and community based supports before anyone ever needs to transition to that next step. However, when they do, we need to make sure that specialist mental health services are resourced. Mr. Smyth has said that the work has not really started and we need to ramp up our efforts in terms of retention of mental health professionals. There is a new HSE recruitment strategy and the implementation plan for that is being developed. In the first instance, it is really important to get it right at every level of the layered care pyramid of support. We also need to ensure that people are able to move between those different layers. It really is part of the bigger picture to ensure that people get the support they need when they need it. Most of us here will agree that the sooner a problem is addressed, the better, so that it does not escalate into a crisis