Mr. David Walsh:

Yes. The list in the appendix refers to those awaiting outpatient appointments in the community. The Linn Dara unit is currently fully open. As of today, it has 23 residents and while it has a maximum capacity of 24, I am advised that due to the mix of patients it is currently deemed to be full with those 23. Work is ongoing and in particular, the reconfiguration of teams in Kildare and Lucan this year will help us to address the longer waiters for community outpatient appointments. We expect that those 23 patients who have been waiting for more than three months will be addressed in the coming months because obviously that is too long.

Two of the three suicide resource officers are currently on duty and one is on leave. They cover the entire CHO. I will ask Dr. McCormack to elaborate on their work on the Connecting for Life programme once I have answered the other questions posed. In terms of IT systems, there is a huge gap. The mental health division is currently working on a programme to introduce a comprehensive IT system that cuts across all of our community services including mental health and primary care. The aim is to improve the ability to communicate between GP, community mental health and acute services. The IT gap has an impact on our efficiency but there is a project under the auspices of the project management office of the mental health division which is examining it and we all support that.

In terms of A Vision for Change for children, as people within the service delivery system we implement the policy that comes down to us and we welcome any direction on policy. I will ask Dr. McCormack to address the question on urgent care. Regarding rehabilitation units, CHO 7 is an area that did not have major institutions in the past so it does not have huge resources that can be reconfigured into newer forms of service. For that reason, we have spent quite an amount of money on placements with other agencies, including private nursing homes and private long-term care facilities to try to address our needs. The appendices contain details of our hostels but there is a gap there in terms of meeting the needs of chronic, long-term patients. I understand that the mental health division intends to source a resource during 2018 that may help to address that but we would see it locally as a very significant gap.

I will ask Dr. McCormack to talk about mental health and intellectual disability. In terms of mother and baby facilities in the context of mental health and motherhood, we provide a perinatal service in the Coombe Hospital but that is an area that needs to be further developed. As a medical practitioner, Dr. McCormack would be better placed to talk about that.