Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this Topical Issue. I apologise on behalf of the Minister, who cannot be present.

Psychologists perform a wide variety of roles across the health and social care services and provide a very important service to service users across a wide spectrum of need. A working group was, therefore, established within the HSE to agree appropriate eligibility criteria for the recruitment of both staff and senior psychologists to best meet the needs of service users across all areas of the public health and social care services. This working group involved principal psychologists from all parts of the HSE together with service managers and it was supported by human resource professionals. The group examined the broad spectrum of clients that the HSE serves and made a determination on which type of qualification would be appropriate for different service areas.

The working group decided that educational psychologists would be appropriate to work only in disability services for children. Their qualifications equip them to deal with a broad spectrum of clients within that group. They are qualified to provide services to children of all ages with an intellectual, physical or sensory disability. The HSE has established on the basis of the service requirements of different client groups and areas across the health service that the qualification of counselling psychologist equips the holder with the necessary skills to provide services to adults in the primary care and community care settings. The working group determined that clinical psychologists were eligible to work with all client groups across the health service.

There has been recruitment for clinical psychology posts in the mental health service recently. These posts are restricted to clinical psychologists in line with the recommendations of A Vision for Change. A Vision for Change sets out in great detail the role of clinical psychologist within the community mental health teams which deal with a wide range of mental health problems among adults, children and adolescents. They also form an integral part of specialist mental health teams. Since the publication of A Vision for Changein 2006, the mental health service has invested an additional €1 million per annum and dedicated 50 whole-time equivalentposts to clinical psychology training at four third-level colleges, namely, TCD, UCD, NUIG and the University of Limerick.

Thirty-four clinical psychologists graduated in 2011. The graduates are being employed to complete the community mental health teams as set out in the HSE's national service plan. In 2012, the €35 million dedicated from within the programme for Government commitment has been allocated to employ 72 clinical psychologists for general adult mental health teams, with a further 23 clinical psychologists for child and adolescent teams. Detailed plans are currently being prepared to determine how the additional €35 million for community-based mental health services will be utilised in 2013. It is expected that further clinical psychology posts will be required in 2013, as indicated in the policy in A Vision for Change.

The Minister is committed to the ongoing development, subject to overall resource constraints, of mental health services and to the recruitment of the most appropriate mix of health professionals to meet the varied needs of service users across the health and personal social services.

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