Professor Joyce O'Connor:

There is a common theme coming through many of the questions.

Senator McFadden's point about psychologists links in with the approved clinician area. They are trained and equipped to intervene at an early stage and can refer an individual. That is the point I was getting at when referring to the availability of clinical psychiatrists and counsellors, as well as other types of therapists and interventions, in local areas. Whether these would be in a GP clinic is another matter, but it is important they are in a local area where they can be accessed. An approved clinician, which is what a clinical psychologist would be, will be able to sign off or refer an individual. We need to look at what is available in the community, use the expertise of a range of professionals in the mental health area and not underutilise them.

CAPA means people have to work well in teams. The primary care team could well do with an intervention from CAPA where they are trained to work with one another effectively, recognise their expertise and what they can contribute. Dr. Ann York is involved in CAPA and it is available in three centres in Ireland. We can certainly send on information about that to the committee after the session. It gets people to work well together.

The lack of communication is the one issue about which every member spoke. There is a real issue about electronic communication but there is also an issue about recognition of others' expertise and being able to communicate effectively. The area of IT is absolutely critical. Data is important in every other area of life. People are making businesses out of it. The fact we have not got a connected information system is bad. The good news is that it does not take long to remedy it if there is a willingness to do so because one can leap over old technologies quickly. However, it needs that investment to ensure the system is in place.

If someone was meeting in two or three years, he or she would have all of the data to hand. He or she would know who they were seeing, where they would be seeing them, the outcomes, what the effective therapies were and who in the system was working, including GPs, counsellors and nurses.

On the comments made by Senators Colette Kelleher and Máire Devine, this is about well-being. We all go through difficult periods and need to talk to a GP and a psychologist to work through the issues. I ask the committee to start creating an understanding about mental well-being, mental fitness and mental health services because the public needs to know that services are available at that level.