Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is high time this Dáil had a proper and meaningful discussion on mental health and, more important, the services needed for treating mental health. From the many conversations I have had with groups and affected individuals throughout the State, I know the lack of 24-7 crisis intervention services is a major issue that must be tackled.

Many here will be very aware that mental health and suicide prevention is very close to my own heart. Like many other families, I and my extended family have had to go through the trauma of burying loved ones, not once but on two occasions. Over the years I have seen too many of my friends end their lives by suicide. One cannot describe the hurt and sense of loss that is experienced within a family when family members are told that one of their own has died by suicide. Emotions are just sucked from the body and automatically replaced with feelings of hopelessness, sadness, bewilderment and anger. As the eldest of the family, it was I who was tasked with the responsibility of breaking the news to my parents and the rest of my siblings. I did not have the answers at the time to my brothers' deaths and still do not, but surely with better preventative measures and services like 24-7 crisis intervention, many other families could have been spared the same trauma.

Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I have been made aware of three more people who have taken their own lives. I am also sure that my story is replicated by many families across the country and this is still happening today, as we speak. I have spoken to many coroners throughout the State in recent months and I have heard the same story repeated again and again about a handful of suicides in their localities each month.

A Vision for Change, published in 2006, proposed crisis intervention services and called for a full range of community mental health teams and programmes for adults with mental health issues to be rolled out. It specifically recommended a 24-7 crisis intervention service that would include the capacity to respond in a multidisciplinary way to the specific needs of every individual. This would be done through community mental health teams, if and when they get adequate resources and appropriate staffing. Ten years on and there is still no State-wide 24-7 crisis intervention service for people in need of emergency mental health care in this country.

To where do people turn? At present, their options are very limited. When people take steps to seek help, they are left, along with their families and friends, with nowhere appropriate to go. Often the only option is the emergency department, which is the wrong place entirely for a person in severe mental distress. One family who experienced this is that of Stephen Byrne. Stephen took his own life in January at the age of 20, having been turned away from hospital multiple times and after an attempted hanging while in Garda custody. He took his own life in desperation and hopelessness after failing to get adequate care. Some members of Stephen's family are here today, including his mother Patricia, who is now a voice for her son. She is calling for crisis intervention services to be made available at all times, for which I commend her. I also commend her on her strength and I am very proud to be representing her family and many others. The situation is also unfair on the staff in emergency departments who are not trained to deal with mentally distressed people and who are already under extreme strain due to the failings in our general health care system.

It is clear that mental health care in this country must be taken more seriously. People in distress often feel let down by society and by our health services. A properly functioning mental health care system requires a whole range of supports to operate properly. The community is a crucial part of this recipe and we need fully staffed community mental health teams. Sadly, we are very far short of this at present. The HSE's report, Delivering Specialist Mental Health Services 2014-2015, found that child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, staffing was only at half the recommended level.

I urge the Minister of State to take the first step and to invest in mental health. She must start by rolling out the plan to deliver 24-7 crisis intervention services. We have waited far too long already. We need to start helping the 8,708 individuals who presented with self-harm at hospitals nationally in 2014 and some of the 17,000 people who were referred for counselling in primary care in 2015, many of whom are still on lengthy waiting lists. We must also help those who need the help of CAMHS, referrals to which have grown from 8,633 in 2011 to a staggering 13,062 in 2014.

This motion asks for nothing more than what the State has already signed up to deliver. The problem for the Government is that it demands that action be taken sooner rather than later. Let there be no more kicking the can down the road, waiting for reports that will just gather dust. We want no more lengthy lead-ins for half-measures. We must start the process of delivering what was promised ten years ago because with every passing day, the lack of action puts lives at risk. I implore the House to support the motion.

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