David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Ellis. I welcome the opportunity to have this debate. A number of us tabled a Topical Issue matter on the Waterford psychiatric unit some weeks ago. The Minister of State was not in a position to be here, which was unfortunate because this was not just a scandal in Waterford or the south east. It was seen as a national scandal to have patients being treated the way they were. We all know that child and adolescent mental health is important but it is in disarray and crisis. There is oversubscription, underfunding and understaffing. We hear from the trade unions representing the staff who do their best on a constant basis to provide the services that the system is under fierce pressure. In Clondalkin, there is a campaign to save services. Councillor Mark Ward of Sinn Féin is involved in that. In Wexford, there was also a protest in recent times. Mental health is a big issue.

The issue regarding Waterford is extraordinary, particularly because it was allowed to happen. For what has been reported in Waterford to be allowed to happen in any psychiatric unit in the country is extraordinary. What is terrible about this is that everybody knew about it. It is not the first time the Mental Health Commission has shone a spotlight on the psychiatric unit in Waterford. It does not blame the staff. They are not to blame, they are doing their best. The Mental Health Commission blames capacity. I want to give a flavour of what it found in its report, which makes for very depressing reading. It found that residents' general health needs were not monitored, nor were they assessed in line with their specific needs. It found that eight children had been admitted to an adult unit in the past 18 months. These children did not have access to their appropriate services. The general health needs of adult residents were not monitored and assessed on the basis of their specific needs. They did not have access to a supply of appropriate emergency personal clothing; there was only old clothing, which was stored in a disorganised manner. It was unclear what was available concerning size and gender-specific clothing. No emergency underwear was available to residents. Bins were overflowing in both the male and female communal toilets. Discarded cigarette butts were found in the sink of the ladies communal toilet. Thick cobwebs were observed on the skylight in the Brandon unit. Brown staining was observed in the assisted bathroom. In addition to the report and all it contains, there is photographic evidence of patients lying on floors. When the management of the unit were asked about this, they said it is a regular occurrence because it is over-subscribed. When I spoke to the trade union officials on this, they said the unit needs more capacity. There is a difficulty because a previous Government, I think it may have been a Fianna Fáil Government, took the decision to close St. Senan's in Wexford which had disastrous consequences because all the patients there are referred to Waterford with no additional capacity. However, the real problem here is A Vision for Change. It is in the community. That is what the unions are telling us. It is in the community, in primary care and in proper residential care facilities for people with psychiatric needs. It is across the board.

I do not know if the Minister of State has visited the Waterford centre yet or when that visit is going to take place. This needs to be taken very seriously. This has been allowed to happen time and again, year after year, when we had several reports from the Mental Health Commission. I am sure the Minister of State read the report. I am sure he took the time as I, Deputy Butler and Deputy Browne did when we tabled a motion on this issue. I am sure the Minister of State must have been as horrified as I was considering the state of the unit, the massive overcrowding on an almost daily basis, the lack of capacity, patients being sent home with no proper treatment and no plan in place for some patients. The pressure is coming about because there has not been investment in primary care and people are being sent to the acute psychiatric unit, maybe sometimes unnecessarily. All of that is down to not implementing A Vision for Change in full.

It is easy to dump it all on the Minister of State. He is one individual but he is the Minister of State with responsibility in this area. If he has read that report, he has to be as outraged as we and the people of Waterford and the south east were. There has to be change. We cannot come back here in six months or a year and hear the same stories. What I want to hear from the Minister of State is what it is that the Government is going to do to make sure we do not see this happening again in the future.

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