Dáil debates

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

 

Mental Health Services.

8:00 pm

Photo of Dan NevilleDan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue on the Adjournment. I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and disability services, Deputy Moloney, to the House to reply. There is an urgent need to invest in services for child and adolescent psychiatry. It is not acceptable that more than 2,600 children and adolescents are on waiting lists for mental health services, with more than one quarter of those waiting more than one year to access those services. It is accepted that early intervention and treatment are crucial to full recovery from child and adolescent psychiatric difficulties. Children have a right to enjoy the highest possible standard of mental health. They have the right to enjoy a sense of well-being, control over their lives and the ability to realise their potential. Good health comes from having a balance between all aspects of life, social, physical, spiritual and emotional.

To vindicate the right to mental health, children need a supportive environment for themselves and their families, and appropriate support and services when they experience difficulties. However, the reality is that children's right to mental health is not being vindicated. For example, in a shocking violation of their human rights, children continue to be treated in adult inpatient units. They face unacceptably long waiting lists to access services and there is patchy service provision across the State. Official responses fail to meet basic needs and there is a lack of focus on early intervention and promotion that could prevent future problems. With no national directory of services, navigating the system can be a nightmare for children and their families. Insufficient supports are provided for Ireland's most vulnerable young people, namely, those in the care and youth justice systems. The mental health system fails to effectively link with education in the early years - the first point of contact for children outside of the family - which is a crucial missed opportunity.

Children's rights must be respected so that every child is able to reach his or her full potential. This is not a pipe-dream but a vision that should now become reality. The Government must support best practice and move towards the provision of mental health services for children from early childhood up to early adulthood. Today's children are tomorrow's workers, parents, teacher and leaders. We must invest now in their well-being; to do otherwise violates their rights and makes little economic sense.

New consultants appointed to deal with growing waiting lists in child and adolescent mental health services have only one third of the front-line staff required and often have no premises from which to work. Despite having the fourth highest rate of suicide in Europe among 15 to 24 year olds, the latest Health Service Executive figures indicate, as I referred to earlier, that more than 2,600 children and adolescents are on waiting lists for mental health services, with more than one quarter of these waiting more than year. Only 55 of the promised 99 community mental health teams have been delivered. Despite the appointment of additional consultants, a lack of resources means there are significant limits to what can be achieved. Unpublished details from a recent report show that managers of child and adolescent mental health services raised serious concerns about their inability to deliver comprehensive services because of pressure on staff.

The Government's framework for mental health provision, A Vision for Change, identified the deficiencies in existing child and adolescent psychiatry services. For instance, it acknowledges that child community mental health teams and services are well below the norms recommended by the working group on child and adolescent psychiatric services. The document also points to the inequitable variation in the distribution of child services throughout the State and acknowledges that dedicated adolescent mental services are virtually non-existent on a national basis. A Vision for Change asserts that paediatric liaison services are not available in the majority of major hospitals outside the three national children's hospitals in Dublin. It also accepts that mental health services for autism and autism spectrum disorders are not always accessible and that there are insufficient inpatient and day hospital facilities and no dedicated child and adolescent forensic teams. The Minister must fast-track the provision of these services without delay.

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