Dr. Susan Finnerty:

I can talk about the diversion from Garda stations where people are brought in. We looked at the year before last in great detail. The HSE is trying to set up a diversion service in the Limerick area. I believe that has been held up by funding. It was not in operation when we finished the report. I am not sure what the recommendation of the task force is in respect of this. Looking at other jurisdictions, it works extremely well. There are different models of this, such as street triage, and various ways you can divert people into the appropriate services for them rather than bringing them to the Garda station, charging them with an offence, going through all that and the person ending up in prison. The HSE is thinking about it. Hopefully, the pilot in Limerick should start shortly.

I can talk about the lack of community support for people living in independent and semi-independent accommodation. Going back in history, when the institutions closed, whole wards were moved out into the community into large settings so it was literally a case of close a ward and put them into a suitable building like a convent or an old place like that. What happened and what is still happening is that there is very little accommodation for people to move on from those congregated settings. These were large settings. There was very little rehabilitation for people to prepare to move on to the medium and low support areas. That is still the problem today. The lack of accommodation and the lack of rehabilitation services are the main reasons why we still have congregated settings. You go further along that line to people in semi-independent and independent living. They should be supported by a rehabilitation and recovery team. There are not enough of such teams, however. When I looked at rehabilitation in 2019, we had 48% of the recommended number of rehabilitation teams according to A Vision for Change. Those teams only had an average of 35% staffing. You can see why the people who do get to semi-independent and independent living do not have the support they need. The risk of that is that their mental health then deteriorates and they end up in acute hospitals.