Ms Audry Deane:

I will take up the point about the lack of data we can get for mental health services because that continues to worry us. We do not have a functioning mental health information system. In fact, some of the files are, in some cases, handwritten on paper. There are considerable challenges in that regard. We cannot currently track patient outcomes and pathways across the various settings, whether community, secondary, specialist or in-patient acute.

I am mindful that on 21 April, the Dáil debated mental health. Some statistics were discussed which, at that stage, were fresh. Some 8,892 children are currently waiting to get access to psychological services in the HSE. With regard to child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, we have known for quite some years that the capacity to reach out to children and adolescents when they need care is not there. The issue was debated at length in the Dáil recently. Is it acceptable and appropriate to have a target that a patient would be seen by a CAMHS team within 12 weeks? Is that how services should be benchmarked? Our view is that for a child or adolescent to spend 12 weeks waiting for a service when they are in distress is not good practice. There are currently 2,730 young people waiting to get access to CAMHS, of whom 98% have been waiting for over a year. None of us here has to work very hard to imagine what that means for a young person, his or her family, carers and immediate community. We do not even have any data on who is waiting to get access to adult community health teams.

I could rattle on with other statistics but it is enough to say that services are inadequate at the moment.

People cannot access services. We are concerned about future outcomes. It is quite clearly the case the HSE’s expert group on Covid, drawn from mental health specialisms within the HSE, has delineated the pathway. The fourth wave will involve the individuals in question. Deputy Ward has already alluded to some of them. I refer to people who are currently undergoing mental health difficulties for the first time. In the coming months and years, that group plus all the other specific vulnerable groups, whose situations we have described, will all be trying to access services to meet their needs. As already stated, the mental health services will not be in a position to provide the level of service that will be required.