Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Fianna Fáil for using its Private Members' time to raise these extremely important matters. I would also like to take the opportunity to commend the proposed Sinn Féin amendment, which I believe is very much in keeping with the spirit of the motion and adds positively to it, with policies for which Fianna Fáil has recently expressed support. I thank Deputy Browne and Fianna Fáil for accepting our amendment. We will see the value in these additions, which were developed in conjunction with mental health campaigners.

There are deep-rooted societal impacts on mental health which can only be addressed fully by policies which pursue an end to the economic and political model which enshrines inequality, poverty and isolation. That said, I believe that all in this House, from all political perspectives, can and should agree at least that mental health services deserve investment and that people who use those services deserve dignity and effective care within the service.

I was not shocked at what I read in the Mental Health Commission report because it is something which my work in mental health for many years has made me all too aware of. At the core, this is an issue of rights. We talk about patients' rights in this context but, really, they are simply the rights of all people to care, should they need it. We do not have that system today, as this report and this motion remind us. There is no dignity in a dirty, smelly, broken down ward. There is no dignity in a four-bedroom dorm with no privacy for adults in mental health distress. There is no dignity in a child being placed in an adult ward or, worse still, sleeping on a chair, as has happened for lack of an appropriate bed. Where is the care and dignity when over two thirds of patients do not have care plans in compliance with regulation?

With no dignity comes no hope. There is no hope when long-term patients have no rehabilitation teams, as is the case for 39% of them. There is no hope in waiting lists for care which put lives at risk and see children become adults before an appointment is met. In that indignity and hopelessness, we find staff who have trained for years to dedicate their lives to care being let down by a system and a Government that, quite frankly, undervalues them, overworks them and does not listen to them.

Many things can impact a person's mental health negatively but mental health services should not be one of them for patients, families or staff.

We cannot continue down this road. The solution is not simple or cheap, but the cost of not acting will be greater. We need accountability with, as promised, a new director of mental health in the HSE, a new Oireachtas committee on mental health and a new mental health Act, which enshrines dignity, respect and hope as the right of all who seek care in the services. We demand clarity on the progress towards 24-7 services, with an implementation process that sets out funding and has firm but ambitious deadlines. We need a statutory right to a collaborative and empowering care plan and to advanced healthcare directives for all patients with capacity.

Nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and other therapeutic professions demand the respect their work deserves, the ability to do that work in Ireland, to live in comfort at home and to safety at work. I ask the House to support the motion and the Sinn Féin amendment.

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