Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Browne for giving me the opportunity to speak on this motion on mental health services. I will begin by complimenting the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, for holding the audiovisual room session with Jigsaw some weeks ago. It was a very welcome opportunity for that organisation to present its stall. It was also welcome for Oireachtas Members to engage with Jigsaw. We acknowledge the wonderful work they do. We need to see that model replicated throughout the State, however that is managed. Deputy Cahill spoke earlier about Tipperary. As long as I have been in the House, we have been talking about Tipperary as a model that needs to be rolled out. Tipperary borders with my native county - we have just a bridge separating us - and mental health issues know no boundaries. Such a service, be it based in Nenagh or wherever, would be very welcome for the people in Portumna to be able to cross the bridge. It would free up a huge gap.

On the motion and the Mental Health Commission, I was very startled to hear yet again that young people being admitted to psychiatric units is on the agenda and that yet again, we are listening to their experiences. We have no idea what it is like to be in those young people's shoes or to be in those particular horrors or what it is like for their mothers, their fathers or their relatives to have to walk away at night leaving their child in an adult unit. I have first-hand experience of knowing what adult units are like. It is soul destroying when one walks away and leaves an adult behind but I cannot imagine what it is like to have to leave a child.

When the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, takes to the floor later, will he please indicate what he is going to do about beds, because it is about beds? Galway has a CAMHS centre but it has only so many beds while supporting 11 counties.

We are fantastic now at talking about wellness and mental health. There is huge awareness around the issue now. People know about it and gone are the days of it being a taboo. People are now able to say that they need help and to ask how they can access help and get support. People are open to the interventions on offer. Parents are open to being told that the best thing they can do is walk away and leave it to the professionals if an intervention is required. They are open to being told they can do no more, they have done the best they can at home but now it is time to let their little ones come in, as the professionals can give them the wraparound supports and by getting that intervention, they can get the young people back on their feet, back into the community, back into school and pushing forward.

It is very hard, however, to do this when there are not enough beds. Parents are very reluctant to avail of getting that next level of support. The reason they do not want to get that next level of support is they do not want to have to walk away, leaving their child in a 50-bed unit in University Hospital Galway. They do not want to leave their child on a stretcher in the accident and emergency department. Why would they? If a child is having a particular episode and thinks the whole world is against him or her, then parents are not going to expose the child to an overcrowded accident and emergency room, while telling the child this is the best they have to give him or her. This mentally scars the children a hell of a lot more. We actually do the child more harm than good. We are not giving them support and we are holding them back by donkey's years compared with where we could bring them. I put it to the Minister of State that early intervention is key. Consider a young child of ten or 11 years of age with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. We are aware that intellectual disabilities and mental health issues are four times more likely when coupled together like that.

We also need to support the staff who really want to help but who are constrained by the facilities around them and by the fact that they cannot give that help. Earlier I spoke with the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, with regard to primary care settings. I am a serious advocate for it. I appreciate that we have made leaps and bounds since 2012 in the delivery of primary care settings. The first intervention, however, is where it needs to be at. A situation should not have to become acute where the person might need to get into a hospital bed. Early intervention is key, especially when one does it through the primary care centre and setting. One does not need to have all the staff; there is e-health also. We have moved on. We do not need to run around looking for the psychiatrist or psychologist.

We can have that space in a proper primary care setting, where that family are totally engaged, switched on and know what is going on. I was in Australia late last year and I saw exactly how it is done there. Jigsaw is going out there to look at the best ideas. My God, it was amazing when I walked into their rooms and saw all they have done. We can do that too. We are spending the money but we could put that into the primary care centres. It is normal for people to talk about their mental health and well-being. Why would we not integrate that really well within our primary care setting?

I thought the year we spent on the mental health committee in the bowels of Leinster House was a year well spent. It was a year spent trawling through the issues, asking questions and getting to understand not just what has come out in this report, but also the Prison Service and so many other services. It would help any Minister who is in that position to hear it being teased out.

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