James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was struck by the comments made by one young person on the RTÉ programme who said people felt abandoned and lost in the system. That probably sums up the experience of many young people and their families in trying to access mental health services.

The second interim report of the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care was published last week and one of the most notable aspects was that €400 million was being spent on psychotropic drugs but only €10 million was being spent on counselling in primary care settings. That goes to part of the problem to which I alluded in that we seem to triage and deal with crisis interventions instead of dealing with people when they first show early signs of having a mental illness or difficulty. The HSE launched a standard operating procedure in 2015, but it is ineffective when there are not enough staff in place to operate or implement it. Everything is being funnelled into CAMHS and GPs are in a desperate position because they either send people to emergency departments or must prescribe drugs for them. We must provide for earlier intervention and more primary care supports for young people.

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