Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le muintir Phort Láirge as an tacú a fuair mé i rith an toghcháin. I have not had an opportunity to thank the people of Waterford as my maiden speech was on the very important matter of the nomination of the Taoiseach, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support.

I welcome this opportunity to speak on this matter and it is with mixed emotions that I do so. Suicide is every family's worst nightmare and traditionally it is rarely discussed. The public attitude towards mental health and suicide must change if we are to be able to provide for those who need help and for people to be able to accept help. One in four people in Ireland have a mental health difficulty, which is an alarming statistic, making it an issue of national importance. Since my involvement with Labour Youth and as I moved through the ranks in Dáil na nÓg, I have always spoken out on this issue. I have attempted to shine a light on an issue which has been allowed to stay hidden in the shadows for far too long. I saw first-hand in my work as a child protection social worker and later in my work with Barnardos how suicide and mental health issues affect not only an individual but entire families, particularly children. It is welcome that €35 million has been ring-fenced in the health budget to develop community mental health teams and services, such as psychologists and counsellors in primary care teams throughout the country.

The programme for Government states: "We will endeavour to end the practice of placing children and adolescents in adult psychiatric wards." I have been outspoken on this issue for several years. There are no services for children between the ages of 16 and 18 because they fall through the net of services for children and adults. This is a barbaric practice which needs to be addressed immediately. The problems caused by the admission of young people to adult mental health wards were such that a report was commissioned by the Mental Health Commission in 2010 to investigate the inappropriate care of young people aged between 16 to 18 and examine the factors contributing to their admission to adult wards. Alarmingly, in the first six months of 2010 the young people who were admitted to adult approved centres included 11 children aged 15 or younger. In some cases, the children concerned did not even have mental health problems and would have been more appropriately cared for by social services. A young person should only in exceptional circumstances be considered for admission to an adult psychiatric ward. The report identified confusion within the psychiatric community in regard to who is best placed to look after young people with mental health problems, particularly those aged 16 and 17 years.

The State's mental health watchdog has expressed concern about the occupation of scarce beds in child and adult mental health wards by patients who do not have mental health disorders. What is happening at present is akin to the practice of the past whereby people were inappropriately placed in institutions. This practice needs to be discontinued. Young people without diagnosable mental health disorders or with social problems have reportedly been admitted to child and adolescent units simply because there is nowhere else for them to go. This is a terrible indictment of our system but I am heartened by the new Minister for Health and Children and hope he will work in partnership with the Minister for State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to address this issue as a matter of urgency.

The children who are admitted to psychiatric wards are among the most vulnerable people in our society. Greater investment is needed in community resources if we are to address this problem. We have to invest in the mental health of our young people and think outside the box in terms of acting to prevent these problems from arising. The problem will not be solved by individual Ministers because it requires co-operation from the Departments of Health and Children, Education and Skills and Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. By pooling their resources, they can ensure the social and emotional needs of our young people are put to the fore over the lifetime of this Government.

Many of the speakers during this debate have focused their remarks on adults but if we are to prevent suicide we need to be proactive in investing in children from the age of three. A study commissioned in America in the 1970s, the Perry preschool project, invested in young children between the age of three and five and followed them until they were in their 40s to find out how the investment paid off. The quantitative and qualitative evidence from that study has categorically shown that the investments made an improvement in the lives of the individuals concerned. Every euro invested in young children provided a saving of €16 later on. Social scientists in America often base their work on the objective of keeping people out of prison and in this House we have been discussing community service orders over the past several weeks. If we invest in quality preschool programmes that address the social and emotional development needs of young children alongside the services required to address their concerns as they grow up, they will be given the language they need to seek help and we will no longer have to deal with an unfortunate group of people who on reaching adulthood find themselves in such despair that they chose to take their lives.

I have the courage of my convictions on this issue and the statistics are available to support my argument. We have an opportunity to think differently about mental health. I am keenly aware from my work in the community and voluntary sector over the past ten years that we need to get the most that we can out of the money we are given. I appeal to all the Ministers involved in this area to push for quality and evidence based programmes that deliver happier and healthier outcomes for our children and young people. If we invest in the happiness and health of young people, they become more productive workers and people. The US study indicated that people who received preschool investment went on to be more productive members of their communities, had better relationships in adulthood and were less likely to engage in anti-social behaviour and crime. If by investing early we can prevent young people from reaching a dark place, it is a no-brainer that we should endeavour to do so.

Given that I also worked in mental health services during my time in social services, it would be remiss of me not to state that some of our most committed people work in this area. People who have mental health difficulties deserve to be treated in palaces and given the best of services. They should not be locked away in the dungeons I visited while I worked in mental health services. We need to open the doors of community services to our people.

I ask the Ministers concerned to think outside the box by investing in our young children and ensuring they grow up to be happy, capable and productive members of society.

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