Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail)
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All the representatives of the CHOs seem to be outlining the same problems such as the recruitment and retention of staff. That must be addressed because mental health is becoming a more serious problem. As I have said at previous meetings of this committee, awareness and working with the families of those with mental health difficulties are issues that are not being addressed.

To take the example of Carlow, which is my area, along with A Vision for Change there are child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and the self harm intervention project, SHIP, which is a programme being run in the south east to address self harm by those aged between 16 and 25. However, some younger teenagers need to access that service, which has a waiting list. I have been in contact with the relevant CHO in that regard. Some people who have come to me are on a waiting list and badly need to access that service. It frightens me to think that we have such a service - which is on trial only in the south east, although it is hoped that it will be rolled out across the country - but some teenagers who want to access the service and address self harm issues are told they are on the list and will have to wait. It is the same with CAMHS, which also has a backlog in that area that needs to be addressed.

Those who live in Carlow are very lucky because they have Carlow regional youth service, which is an independent body that provides great services. The CHOs seem to be using such organisations. Last year, one of its services, Folláine, provided counselling for 140 young people. It charged young people €2 because there was such a need for the service. The Carlow regional youth service has 14 other projects that provide services to the young people of Carlow. It is an excellent project. It has projects in disadvantaged area and works with liaison officers and the Garda. Last year, it worked with over 5,000 children. Some €20,000 was recently allocated to the structure and providing help but that does not go far enough. That organisation provides a very good service and is always looking for money. It finds it very hard to get money but is dealing with areas in which children from the ages of 12 to 24 are crying out for help. I read in Ms Colley's submission that there is increased demand for service for children and young people and I agree that there is. We need to consider that area into the future. It is a great service. I appreciate that €20,000 was allocated to it some weeks ago and the service was delighted with that but we need to look at putting far more money into such areas because everyone will have to work together with the HSE into the future.

The recruitment of staff is a massive issue. Last week in Carlow I went to a meeting about A Vision for Change. It was the first such meeting held and was part of the HSE local forum. I am sure such meetings are being rolled out across the country. I was very taken aback at that meeting. I have learned that friends, carers and family members who support people are key to this issue. However, only six other people turned up for the meeting.

There are issues here. We went through the whole booklet, which was excellent, and great work can be done with it, but we realised that people are not aware of it. People are not aware of what is available for them out there. If families, users and their friends are not aware of a system's existence it cannot work. That night one of the users present said that there was an occupational therapist, OT, he or she had been working with in St. Dympna's. St. Dympna's wanted to keep this particular OT on, but it was told that this person could not be kept on because of a lack of funding. Anne, who managed the health department, had told us that there was funding in place for the various areas. I learned a great deal that night. I do not know what kind of response the witness is getting, but this is a good programme that nobody was aware of. I only heard by chance because someone I know was going, but otherwise I would not have known it was on. This is something we all need to work on. Every area needs to use this. Perhaps the witness can comment on that.

Another issue that I am sure the witness is aware of is St. Luke's psychiatric unit, which has 44 beds but which had 52 patients last weekend. It was on local radio in Kilkenny all last weekend. Some of the patients had been left on the couches in the TV room. That is a disaster. People were very angry over this. I have spoken to people and their families. I want to know if extra units are going to be built. We had St. Dympna's, which provided a great service. Now the bulk of our services are in Kilkenny, which caters for south Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Carlow. Our capacity is too small and we are not able to cater for it. It is a massive issue. Is there funding, going forward, to build new units? We need them. I can understand that everyone is doing their best. We are here to highlight things in our own area. Are there any plans to build more units to ensure that we never have a situation like this again?