Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy James Browne on introducing this Bill which will ensure that mental health is to the forefront of key decisions being made by the Department of Health. The Mental Health Parity Bill will see mental health well-being treated the same as physical health and we believe there should be parity of esteem.

I will focus on the number of children who present with mental health difficulties but for whom, unfortunately, the correct facility for their needs is not available and the only option in some cases is in an adult facility. The latest batch of inspection reports from the Mental Health Commission in March shows that children were admitted to the acute psychiatric units at UHL, the centre for mental health care and recovery at Bantry General Hospital, the Lakeview Unit, Naas General Hospital and the Aisling Centre in Dublin. The department of psychiatry in University Hospital Waterford and Drogheda hospital's department of psychiatry also admitted children. None of these facilities has age-appropriate facilities and they are not suitable for children.

The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Jim Daly, has left the House but I want to put on record the assistance and support I have received from him recently on these issues. I see, at first hand, his own frustration with the current system and with minors being in adult facilities. A Vision for Change mental health strategy, published in 2006, outlined that Ireland would need 100 inpatient mental health beds for children and adolescents to meet patient demand. The national numbers for operational psychiatric beds for children and teenagers as of November 2017 stood at 68, though I am open to correction on this. There are four CAMHS acute admission units in Ireland with a maximum capacity of 76 beds but only 68 beds for every single minor in Ireland with a psychiatric need.

In recent weeks we have seen the failure of the system to deal with the demands being placed on it and, last week, RTÉ exposed the serious gaps in our child and adolescent mental health service, in a special programme "Young and Troubled" which focused on children and mental health services for the young. The stories were heartbreaking but for many families these experiences are all too familiar as the standard of care children receive can depend on where they live.

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