Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

No, we have not reached what is recommended in A Vision for Change. I do not think we will reach it for the next two years either. We need to move step by step if we are to make progress in this area. The community mental health teams were badly staffed. We have to make progress and we are making progress. I would like to respond to what was said about the backfilling of posts when people leave and the creation of additional posts. The people we are employing are taking up different posts. For instance, we are employing psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, nurses, speech and language therapists, child care workers, counsellors and co-ordinators. That is not the average cohort of mental health professionals. These are different types of posts. To a great extent, the people who have left the service worked as nurses, etc. I am being careful in what I am saying. We are developing a different type of service that may not need the volume of posts we had in the past. We may need different types of posts. We are recruiting an additional 50 nurses, 27 speech and language therapists, 35 child care workers, some counsellors, ten co-ordinators, 120 occupational therapists, 78 social workers and 96 psychologists. We are providing all of the pieces that were missing from a well-rounded and properly developed mental health service. This service will be provided in the community rather than in institutions.

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