Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 November 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion

Mr. John Farrelly:

We do not actually regulate the community. Regarding one of the things that emerged from the research about medication, one can see the number of people who go on antibiotics and fail to complete the programme. It is not about adherence, rather it is about an individual citizen who has paid or whose family has paid taxes for years. If this person becomes unwell, he or she seeks treatment. If something is properly explained to a person and that person is given a choice, he or she usually goes along with a programme. Adherence is not so good if a person only gets two or three minutes and the medication and its side effects, such as putting on weight, are not explained. Most people would admit that medication that is now available has come a long way and has advanced in recent years, but it is moving to an idea where someone is not actually having something done to him or her. Rather, he or she is being provided with a service that he or she must understand and be part of. That movement is beginning to happen.