Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy James Browne for bringing forward this Bill. It gives us the opportunity to highlight the inadequate funding for mental health and the continual reluctance of the Government to address the problem. I am aware of the need for more funding and resources for mental health in my constituency of Limerick City. I commend Jigsaw in Limerick city. I visited that project recently and it does great work in offering mental health support to young people and their families. Jigsaw aims to ensure that no young person feels alone, isolated and disconnected from others around them. It provides vital supports to the mental health of young people by working closely with communities across Ireland. Limerick Suicide Watch also provides an invaluable service in Limerick city. It patrols our streets at night time. Unfortunately, its services are needed far too often. The huge efforts of these volunteers should not go overlooked. They are a credit to our city.

Data compiled earlier in the year by the national suicide research foundation found that from 2014 to 2016 the average rate of suicide in Limerick city was 23.7 per 100,000. This is higher than the last report from 2011 to 2013. That recorded a rate of 22.4, in the midst of the economic crisis and austerity when suicide tends to increase. While the figures for suicide nationally are declining slightly, unfortunately Limerick figures have risen. It is both shocking and upsetting that the suicide rate for Limerick city is more than twice the national average of 10.5. This clearly demonstrates that a properly resourced 24-7 crisis intervention service is essential for our region.

In 2015, figures also showed that 425 people took their own lives nationally and that twice or three times as many men as women die by suicide. Unfortunately, accurate figures for death by suicide are hard to obtain, as the Minister of State knows. Many other cases of death by suicide have been recorded as accidental death when the individual may have died by suicide. The only way to get real figures and a true insight as to the actual rate of death by suicide is by talking and listening to the families that have lost loved ones. In 2016, the national self-harm registry Ireland recorded 11,485 presentations to hospitals due to self-harm. Accident and emergency departments do not offer appropriate care or follow up for those in acute mental stress. I know that from friends. The provision of 24-7 crisis intervention services is required. That could provide assistance to people day or night when they require help and hopefully reduce the number of suicides.

Currently, there are 2,603 children and adolescents waiting for an appointment with a CAMHS team, which treat vulnerable children in Ireland with moderate to severe mental health problems. This is largely due to a failure to recruit the staff needed to operate a CAMHS team fully. Currently, and for quite some time, about half the positions in CAMHS teams across the country are vacant. Figures released recently to Sinn Féin also show that the child and adult mental health team in the Limerick region is operating with only 58.7% of the recommended staff set out in the strategy, A Vision for Change. That strategy recommends that youth mental health services be fully staffed at 1,047 people. As of December 2017, however, the CAMHS teams had just 587 doctors and nurses. The sad reality is that without adequate resources and the provision of proper services for those in acute mental distress, the figures for death by suicide by self-harm will only continue to increase. The Government needs to sit up and take notice of the public desire for more funding and resources to be allocated for mental health services across the State.

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