Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill tonight. We fully support its passage through the Dáil. The involuntary detention of people in institutions should be kept to a minimum. I fully support the rights of people with mental health issues. It is important that they are given a voice.

I cannot ignore the serious problems in our mental health service. We are all too aware that people suffering from psychiatric illnesses are left waiting for long periods of time before they can access treatment. It has been reported that waiting times and lists are getting longer and there are major gaps in services in certain parts of the country such as Cork and Kerry. This needs to be addressed urgently. It is a disgrace that children who need to access services are suffering. It has emerged that, as of March this year, 2,691 children and young adults were waiting for the HSE to provide them with an appointment, including 386 waiting longer than 12 months. There is an ongoing problem because the lack of out-of-hours and inpatient services means that children are being admitted to adult mental health services. This is unacceptable. Emergency response times to child and adolescent mental health issues should not be greater than 72 hours. We need 24 hours, seven days a week access to our mental health services. This is no fault of the staff who work tremendously hard in these services but it is the fault of the Government which has failed to provide adequate funding for mental health services year on year.

There is no one in the country who does not have somebody in their lives who has had a mental health problem at some stage, whether it be depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol or drug issues, and it is a joke to think that approximately 6% of the overall health budget is spent on mental health services each year. Mental health has been neglected and we need to address this matter urgently. Without investment and major change the Mental Health Commission has declared that the level of care provided to vulnerable and distressed individuals will continue to be unsafe and substandard. In my constituency, a mother had to take to our local newspaper to highlight her struggle with the Health Service Executive, HSE, to provide her with adequate supports for her child. This lady has an autistic child who is non-verbal and has violent outbursts. The problem is not just a question of funding but how and where the money is spent. In this case, the lady has been approved for 30 hours home support per week but cannot fully access it because of the lack of staff at CoAction. I can only say wonderful things about the work of CoAction and its staff but the problem of how the health and mental health budgets are spent is down to this Government and the HSE.

Constituents of mine come to me with serious concerns. It has been brought to my attention that when older adolescents come out of their facilities, such as CoAction, their parents are very concerned about what will happen to them when they can no longer care for them as there are not adequate services available to these people. We need to consider providing more semi-independent living options to people who want to avail of the support they could access in a semi-independent living facility. It is time for this Government to fully realise its commitments to mental health care and adequately invest in mental health services in the upcoming budget to improve the mental health outcomes of adults and children living in Ireland.

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