Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak on mental health. I wished to speak on the issue on the previous occasion when such a debate was held in the House but, unfortunately, I had a foot injury. Mental health is a great concern for all of us. Our society has become more complex, our purpose less clear and the route our lives will take, less certain. The strain of the multitude of tasks we perform on a daily basis and the ever-increasing fast pace of the world we live in can place greater stress on all of us. Depression and mental illness can transform the beauty of a bright and beautiful May day such as today and a world with promise into a place of dread and worthlessness. Those days, when life has to be endured and where it all seems like a pointless crawl towards old age, are a burden many with depression and mental illness face on a daily basis. Even those of us with good mental health know painful times, days where life seems to be without meaning and pain and disappointment are very present. Those times, however, give us an opportunity to show empathy with those who suffer with bad mental health.

Understandably, there has been much focus on the mental health budget in recent times. Since 2012, we have provided for continued spending on mental health. We must remember that the national debt, which increased from €47 billion in 2007 to €189 billion in 2011, the year Fianna Fáil and the Green Party left Government, is a reality with which mental health funding strategists will have to grapple for decades. I want to be part of a Government that will be able to better resource mental health in the years ahead. We are doing that incrementally. The gross non-capital mental health budget has increased from €711 million in 2012 to €791 million in 2016.

While there is and always will be much work to do in the field of mental health, one also should take stock of the improvements that have been made in this vital area. The era of large, fully operational industrial-sized psychiatric hospitals in places such as Ballinasloe and Portrane is gone. If one remembers the year 1963, when President Kennedy visited Ireland, more than 19,000 people, or 0.7% of the national population, were in psychiatric institutions, more than half of whom had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The transition of St. Brendan's psychiatric hospital at Grangegorman from a dreary hidden complex with more than 2,000 patients at its peak to what is now a vibrant new campus for the Dublin Institute of Technology reflects our commitment to change. There was a time, not so long ago, when depression and mental illness were shameful hidden taboo subjects, but this no longer is the case. Even though society has become more complex, it also, quite rightly, has become less judgmental of people. The Mental Health Act 2001 puts on a statutory footing the rights of users of psychiatric hospitals and sets out clearly their right to a decent standard of care in their best interests and with a view to reviewing involuntary detention. Ireland has moved into a new era of mental health and, with this Act, psychiatric patients are better protected, with a robust charter of rights.

As a people, we must reach out to our brothers and sisters in their despair while acknowledging their pain and showing solidarity. As a mediator and family lawyer, I have seen how depression can engulf a family, particularly one-parent families with mental health concerns, and children are particularly vulnerable in such circumstances. Funding for the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, is a priority. I am happy to note there have been improvements in this vital area for young people who are affected by mental illness. The number of people waiting more than 12 months for treatment from December 2014 to April 2015 has decreased by 60% under the CAMHS waiting list initiative. Moreover, an additional eight CAMHS beds were added with the opening of the Linn Dara facility in December 2015, which increases the number of CAMHS beds to 66. While these are modest achievements, they were made at a time of unparalleled economic adjustment. This is an acute area in which improvements will be made, and the urgency of doing this must be informed by the suicide rate in Ireland among 15 to 19-year-olds, which, frighteningly, is the fourth highest among 31 European countries surveyed. This must be taken into account.

The new programme for Government sets out an ambitious strategy on mental health and the Government is committed to meeting the recommendations set out in the strategy A Vision for Change. As Members are aware, this strategy sets out wide-ranging recommendations, including improved communications for continuity of care, referral protocols, direct access to diagnostic facilities, discharge plans, integrated pathways and shared care arrangements. Since early 2015, clinical nurse specialists in psychiatry have started work in emergency departments to provide a rapid response to those who present with self-harm.

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