Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some 2,500 people were referred to counselling in primary care in 2016 and 2017 in community health organisation, CHO, 5. Some 950 people were referred to the self-harm intervention counselling programme in the same years. I asked the HSE for the numbers of people being prescribed antidepressant medication for those same years. It gave me the numbers of 249,500 people in 2015 and 390,000 for 2016. This is just the data of those who use medical cards and it represents a 36% increase. We know that medication can be helpful but the number of people on antidepressants is totally out of sync when compared to the numbers who receive counselling. Any psychiatrist who believes in the idea of recovery will tell us that antidepressants are not intended to be used as a long-term solution and are damaging when taken in the absence of ongoing counselling or talking therapies. In Ireland, however, there are 250,000 people - medical card holders - on antidepressants and perhaps only one in ten is talking to anyone about the root of his or her problems. It is a recipe for drug dependence and it does not lead to a great deal in terms of recovery.

The people in Wexford desperately want things to be different. Kenneth Rowe's family have spoken about the lack of talk therapy offered to him. He was put on powerful antidepressants. On 2 January 2018 his prescription was doubled and his agitation became extremely intense. He was dead three days later. We will never know if talk therapy would have saved him but we owe it to him and to others to make real change to the way we provide mental healthcare in this State. It is not good enough.

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