Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Ceann Comhairle's co-operation in allowing this conversation and debate to continue and the event he is organising, which will be held in September, on such an important and very relevant issue. I also acknowledge the work of my colleague, Deputy James Browne, in introducing this Bill to deal with such an important and relevant issue for so many families and individuals who are suffering in this area. Before we get further into the discussion and the debate, I wish the Minister of State the best of luck in his role and acknowledge the wonderful work done by so many people in this service area who are perhaps sometimes caught between a lack of resources and a lack of supports, on which we can dwell in a moment. It is important to acknowledge all the positive work done while at the same time acknowledging where the gaps are and that we must try to work together positively to put better supports and resources in place to help the many vulnerable people who suffer from mental illness.

As previous speakers have said, the issue of mental health involves that famous old slogan, "It is okay not to be okay." The reality is that no matter the age group to which people belong, if they suffer from mental health illness, they sometimes feel embarrassed or find it difficult to speak about it because they feel that if they speak about an issue, they are somehow letting themselves down or letting down people around them. Of course, this is not the case at all but, unfortunately, that is a barrier and an issue. We must get the message out more strongly to people that it is okay not to feel well and okay to have discussions on a number of sensitive issues, whatever they are, and that there are people there, whether friends, family or someone qualified to whom they can speak, to help them overcome these problems.

This leads me to the constituency I represent, Kildare North. I have raised this in the House on a number of occasions and I raised it with the Minister, Deputy Harris, yesterday afternoon when he was kind enough to meet me. We are still without a primary care child psychologist in that constituency. The population of Kildare North is approximately 110,000 and we do not have that post filled yet. It has been vacant for perhaps 18 months now. If we are serious about trying to help people, deal with the issues and prevent the problems everyone has spoken about this morning, we need to put those very simple and basic services in place to help people.

I wish to speak about a particular case and how the service does not work sometimes. I have a constituent who is 15, was suffering mental health issues and taking drugs and had many problems, so much so that it was out of control and his family was not able to control him. At the May bank holiday weekend, the gardaí had to arrive at his home, remove him and put him into a foster care environment. The very disappointing aspect of the case was that the service providers engaging with him and looking after him on behalf of the State allowed him to commute unsupervised from his foster home to the service by public transport even though he was on suicide watch, and he went missing for nearly five days and could not be found. Most alarming was that when he was found, the service provider looking after him on behalf of the State did the very same all over again, and he went missing again. Then the problem was that we had to work tirelessly with everyone, when he was found, to get him into care. It is only in the past two weeks that we have broken all the barriers and the family is now happy with the supports that are in place for this 15 year old to the extent that they believe he will not do the awful thing and commit suicide. This is why I wished to acknowledge the positives at the beginning of my contribution. However, there are negatives and massive gaps in the service that need to be addressed. As my colleagues have said, the problem is that the HSE operates on a 9 to 5 basis, Monday to Friday. It shuts down at 4 o'clock on a Friday and opens up at perhaps 10 o'clock on a Monday morning, and we see this across a myriad of services. This does not work in particular cases and for particular services and it did not work here. Even after the bank holiday weekend, when we expected services to kick in, they did not. That is a problem.

There is a group operating in my town of Celbridge called the Abbey Community Project. I have met the previous Minister and the HSE about the group, which operates on a voluntary basis. It has 40 cases on its books and carries out dual diagnoses. It gets referrals from the State agencies and, to date, has not got one bit of support from the State by way of funding or anything else. I have met and spoken to the HSE to advocate on the group's behalf. I got a hugely disappointing letter two days ago more or less saying the case was closed, the HSE will keep the matter on file and it cannot do anything to help. That is terrible. These are counsellors qualified in dual diagnosis providing an incredible service for 40 clients whom the public health services said they could not help. The HSE told us to come back in three months or six months or whatever if we wanted its help. That is too late for some of these people, as others have said, because they need the help and the intervention now. The people operating this voluntary service in Celbridge refer its clients on for further help and support but they are the first to assist them and keep them safe, and now we hear there is no support for the service. They are looking for very modest support, not hundreds of thousands of euro. If they close their doors in the next number of days, and it is looking like they may do so, 40 cases will be put back into the system which could not deal with them in the first place and which referred them to the Abbey Community Project.

My colleague, who has now left the Chamber, said it is time for us, as politicians, to stop merely speaking, and I genuinely believe this is true. We need the public looking in on this debate to keep talking if they have issues in this area in order that we can help and support them. However, as politicians, we need to stop merely speaking about this now and we need delivery and action. Of course it is hugely important to speak about the issue and bring it to the attention of everyone in order that we get the resources and supports put in place, but now we need delivery. I have identified a number of cases this morning in respect of which direct action by Government, Department and HSE would make a massive difference to people whom we want to be able to access these supports.

I wish the Minister of State well. I hope he will contact me after this contribution in order that we might get real and help in those areas we spoke about, particularly with the group in Celbridge that may have to close and send 40 clients to a service that sent them to that group in the first place.

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