Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

There are many failings in our health system and those in the area of mental health are appalling. It is an historic issue for the nation. The treatment of people with mental health problems illustrates an appalling failure by the State, comparable to its failure to protect children. I get a shiver down my spine when I hear Government Ministers talk about protecting the most vulnerable in society when the records and facts are there. The most vulnerable, namely children and the mentally ill, have been abandoned by the State over the past decades.

An unequal society, alongside an unequal health service, does not make for a healthy society. The rate of hospitalisation for mental illness among unskilled workers is six times that of higher professional groups and ten times that of employers or managers. Those figures come from the health inequality on the island of Ireland 2007 report. The poorer layers of society suffer more from mental illness.

The programme of austerity has hit the poorest sections of society hardest. It will increase inequality and add to the stress, worry, poor diet and low self-esteem which are key factors in causing mental health problems. At the same time that cuts are affecting mental health services people, only 9% of staff in HSE work in the area of mental health yet it is has experienced 50% of staff cuts. It is a Cinderella syndrome which has to be discussed in the open.

The Government claims there has been significant progress in the implementation of the 2006 strategy, A Vision for Change, stressing particularly improved child and adolescent health services. That jars with two facts. There are 200 children in adult inpatient units. Assessment waiting lists for children and adolescents rose by 14% this year.

I have found the experience of older men and women availing of public psychiatric services is also appalling. I know of a person who had psychiatric counselling with a different person each month. The person came into contact with young people in the system and there was no continuity of care. Older people found it difficult to talk to young men or women who do not have the experience to assist them.

Dependency on tablets such as Prozac creates other problems such as impotence and can affect mental health and self-esteem. We have to seriously examine those areas. Community based mental health services must be in place, linked to the national understanding of mental health.

I welcome the fact the Government benches welcome the motion, that €35 million has been ring-fenced and that clinical care programmes will continue. More austerity is being implemented by the IMF and EU, through the Government. There is more joblessness and more people are stressed out by the mortgage crisis and possible evictions and dealing with all the problems associated with that. There will be more stress, inequality and depression. Mental health problems will need to be reviewed, not just in terms of policy but to determine what the needs of our society will be the next number of years.

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