Dáil debates

Friday, 14 July 2017

Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2017: Report and Final Stages

 

10:50 am

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I wish the new Minister of State well on his appointment. I compliment Deputy Browne on bringing this Bill before the House. Unfortunately, no neighbourhood in the country has not experienced the horror of suicide. I wish to focus on early intervention, which is crucial. It can do an awful lot to alleviate the problem and influence the allocation of resources. There is a crisis in the mental health service. As with other Deputies, I have experienced that in my constituency. The service is not improving but unfortunately continues to decline. The workload for staff is increasing. This is due to a lack of funding in the correct areas, especially early intervention. There is confusion in the service, with roles not clearly defined. On many occasions, patients are being referred to general practitioners or the Garda before the HSE is willing to engage with them. They are ultimately the responsibility of the HSE.

An after-hours crisis telephone service, whereby one can telephone a nurse, is available only until 3 a.m. but a patient in crisis can present at any hour of the day or night. There is lack of proper communications systems at place at ground level in the HSE, and there is no proper use of the technologies available in other parts of the HSE.

It is possible for a family member to commit a person to hospital. The family often meets reluctance, be it from Shannon Doc, Caredoc or even HSE staff, because of their lack of knowledge of the patient. A family member who has managed to commit a person to hospital can find it virtually impossible to have that person removed from that situation although the understanding and knowledge of the family member would make him or her best qualified to act in such cases.

Sadly, the mental health service will allow a patient under care to go to the stage of becoming maniacal, which results in disruptive or destructive behaviour. This becomes a safety issue for the patient and other members of the public. Early intervention can avert crises in many cases and it is ultimately better for the patient and more cost-effective for the HSE.

We all know someone in our community who is affected and the turmoil it brings to the family and community cannot be overstated. Therefore, we must make change to ensure the most effective outcome for all.

I want to focus on my constituency. Two other Tipperary Deputies have spoken here this morning. The lack of services in our county is absolutely frightening. I understand that more Jigsaw projects are to be rolled out in the near future and I urge the Minister of State to ensure Tipperary gets one of those projects because this form of early intervention is vital. It is impossible to imagine that a county the size of Tipperary has no psychiatric bed. People in the south of the county must go to Kilkenny and people in the north of the county must go to Ennis, where accommodation is not available.

A mental health clinic in my town services 34,000 people. It is not properly staffed or resourced. The scarcity of mental health services in our county is absolutely frightening. I urge the Minister of State to take particular cognisance of my constituency and to try to devote some resources to it. I would welcome the Jigsaw project as one of the first steps in ensuring that we start to rebuild the proper services in our county.

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