Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be taking this matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly.

Mental health remains a priority for this Government, reflected by the additional €35 million given in the last budget, thus bringing total HSE funding this year to over €910 million. The HSE is committed to ensuring that mental health services are delivered and modernised nationally, including those in the Galway and Roscommon mental health area. This objective is reinforced through the HSE Service Plan 2018.

In 2015, the executive deemed it necessary to conduct an independent review of the quality, safety and governance of Roscommon mental health services to support achieving the goals set out in A Vision for Change and other relevant national policies. Within a short period of being commissioned, it was clear that the initial timeframe proposed to conduct the review was insufficient and the review team received more time to complete its work. The subsequent comprehensive report made 27 recommendations for local service improvement. The report indicates that the review team was impressed by the majority of staff it met or interviewed, and it highlighted their commitment that services improve in Roscommon.

The overriding concern of the majority of those interviewed — staff, service users and carers — was that patients and families in Roscommon were not receiving services in line with best practice to meet required quality and safety of care standards.

Core issues highlighted in the report, for example, related to improving multidisciplinary team working, addressing fractured relationships among some of the local staff, enhancing line management and ensuring allocated funding is spent appropriately.

The steering group to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the report, which was published on 5 September 2017, has had regular meetings since that time. The initial focus of the steering group was to work through each of the recommendations, and set out clear, positive achievable actions. Following this, the project manager was tasked with drafting an action plan, which was signed off by the steering group in January last.

This is currently being considered by the HSE at national level. Arrangements have also been made to ensure independent oversight of implementation of the action plan.

Some of the recommendations have already been implemented, and more are in the process of being implemented. As highlighted in the report, other recommendations require a targeted approach to change management. In this regard, external change management practitioners have been employed to work through the changes directly with HSE staff. Communication has taken place with all relevant stakeholders including service users, family members, staff unions and public representatives, and the HSE will continue this process of engagement.

The action plan will be communicated to all relevant stakeholders once it has been signed-off at HSE corporate level, which is expected shortly. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has had various meetings with the HSE and local political or other representatives about improving mental health services in Roscommon.

The most recent of these was a constructive meeting last night in Leinster House, as has already been stated. The Minister of State also recently visited the area. The Deputy can rest assured that the Minister of State and the Department of Health will continue to closely monitor this issue to ensure that the recommendations of this report are delivered as quickly as possible.

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