Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating this debate. While attitudes to mental health have changed over the years, a recent national survey undertaken by St. Patrick's University Hospital, which examined the attitudes to, and perceptions of, mental health, found that even in 209 there continues to be a stigma against people who suffer from mental illness. More than one third of people surveyed believe that those suffering mental illness are of below average intelligence and a further one third said they were not willing to accept someone with a mental health illness as a close friend. A total of 40% of respondents would discriminate against someone with a history of mental illness when it came to hiring him or her and 40% felt seeking help and undergoing treatment was a sign of failure.

These findings are an eye opener and they are disturbing. Considering that on average one in four people will suffer from a mental health issue in his or her lifetime, it shows how important it is to dispel these myths. Former US President Bill Clinton once said, "Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all." The best way of dispelling this stigma is to move away from institutionalising people with psychiatric issues and to integrate them into our communities.

In 2002, when Our Lady's Hospital in Ennis closed, The Orchard Lodge Hostel, a high support unit was set up in Kilrush. The unit currently supports 17 people, 11 of whom are over the age of 65 years. They have all settled into Kilrush and for the first time in their lives they have a place they can call home. They can go about their daily business, they have freedom, they can go into the local shop to collect their newspaper, have a pint in the local pub or sit and chat over a cup of coffee with their friends. The freedom these people quite rightly now enjoy is being made possible by the care and attention they receive from the team of dedicated staff who look after them. Reports in recent days suggest that these people, who are the most vulnerable in our society, are now going to pay the price for the failure of the Government and the HSE to fund the provision of mental health services in County Clare, that the Orchard Lodge in Kilrush is going to close down and that these people are going to be forced into other facilities where they will not have the same freedom. I cannot understand this. It is a backward step. Does the Minister realise the anguish this will cause to these people and the trauma they will suffer if they have to leave their familiar surroundings?

I understand that a review of the entire provision of mental health services in Clare is under way and that this review is driven by the 21.3% decline in the number of nurses working in the service in the past 22 months. Surely any review of psychiatric services should be driven by what is in the best interest of patients and their families.

Last February, more than 20 geriatric patients were moved from unit 6 of St. Joseph's Hospital in Ennis to a private nursing home in the town and now there is concern that another unit is about to close at St. Joseph's to accommodate patients from Cappahard Lodge in Ennis. Gort Glas in Ennis is also closing I understand, and patients from there will be transferred to Cappahard.

Depression has increased as the recession takes hold in this country and I have been inundated with pleas for help from many families who are finding it more and more difficult to access basic help for mental illness because of the lack of resources. A local eminent psychiatrist recently warned that the reduction of €4 million in funding for the Clare mental health service, down from €26.7 million in 2008 to €22.85 million in 2009, will mean there will be no money for capital projects such as hostels or rehabilitation programmes for a number of years. He also warned that some patients could be forced to wait up to six months to attend a public psychiatrist or counsellor. Some of the multi-disciplinary teams in Clare are not fully staffed, in spite of the Government's commitments under the Vision for Change programme and the reality is that the acute psychiatric unit at Ennis General Hospital is stretched to the limit with no step-down facilities in place and we are still without proper 24/7 access to social workers to help families in crisis.

Short-sighted cuts in mental health care for the most vulnerable members of our society will cost the Government more in the longer term, not to mention the cost to those with mental illness and their families, who continue to suffer in silence.

I am delighted to see the Minister of State with responsibility of mental health in the House this evening. I ask him to clarify here in this House tonight, first of all, what is the situation regarding the Orchard Lodge facility, second, when will the review of mental health services in County Clare be completed and, as part of that review, will the Minister ensure that adequate resources are allocated to the Clare mental health service in the forthcoming budget?

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