Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I have had hundreds of discussions about mental health and the mental health crisis in the past two weeks because Solidarity decided to make the mental health issue one of the top issues in its campaign in the Cork North-Central by-election. We adopted this approach after an internal discussion in which many of our younger members said that we should do so. We consulted widely with supporters and listened, in particular, to the views of younger supporters and decided to do that.

I regard myself as being fairly well in touch with the concerns of my constituents but even I have been slightly surprised by the extent to which, on going to people's doorsteps and provoking a discussion on mental health, this has prompted a response and a willingness from people to talk about how this has affected their own households, friends and the communities in which they live.

Broadly speaking, the points that have been raised with us on the doorstep fall under two headings. The first one is the issue of mental health services and how people across the board see them as falling well short of what is needed, despite the valiant efforts of workers in the mental health sector and volunteers within the communities.

A common report back when we have our debriefing in the office at the end of the canvas is where someone says that they met someone tonight who went down to the accident and emergency department with their son or daughter. The then waited patiently to be seen, got the best possible treatment available from the people who work there, but in reality were brought into a room where they had a brief conversation, a glass of water and a pill, and were sent home. They are waiting for services now and went on a list to queue for that service. The waiting times have been long. I am not the first Deputy who has raised the point on the numbers on the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, waiting lists in the Cork and Kerry area. The figure is more than 400, more than 100 of whom have been waiting in excess of 12 months.

One idea that we have raised on the doorsteps is the idea that there should be 24-7 crisis centres and these should also be in the communities. If one has a mental health crisis, irrespective of the day or time, one can go and be seen and at least have an initial contact with mental health professionals, with perhaps a team being available from that centre to go out and make a quick visit in one's own home or to a place where one would like to meet them.

We have pointed out to people that in the UK, for every £100 spent on the National Health Service, £13 are spent on mental health services. The comparable figure for the HSE in Ireland is that for every €100 spent, €6 are spent on mental health services. We have openly said to people that they have been betrayed by successive Governments which have failed to put the resources and the services in place that their children, friends and neighbours need.

We have a young generation that suffers from greater levels of anxiety, depression and even suicide than perhaps has been the case in the past. There are clearly not sufficient services to cope with that situation. We need a national health service. That would involve a massive increase in spending on mental health services. It should be immediately doubled, with subsequent significant increases each year.

The second point that has come up frequently is the pressure that people feel from society bearing down on them, challenging and damaging their mental health. The current economic system of capitalism is negatively impacting on people's mental health in a wide variety of ways, including precarity of employment. There has been an end to the idea of a job for life and the opposite has happened, with people surviving on 12 or six-month contracts and dealing with the associated uncertainty. Precarity of accommodation is an issue, especially for renters who know that they are just one note under the door away from a notice to quit, telling them to leave by a certain date, leaving the threat of homelessness hanging over them. There is a struggle to make ends meet with low pay for the working poor and the pressure they feel they are under. Mental health is a complex issue with genetic, biological and a wide variety of other factors. Without a doubt, the pressures of 21st-century capitalism with its precarity and its drive to maximise profit at the expense of working people, the stresses on their lives etc. are a significant factor in the mental illness epidemic in this country.

I read in the newspapers today about a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and Trinity College, stating that most 20 year olds still live with their parents and that they are preoccupied with the housing crisis. They ask if they will ever own a house or be able to afford to rent. One in four of those young people already shows signs of depression. Other issues mentioned by young people surveyed about things that concern them include a new phrase that I learned recently, eco-anxiety, the question of climate change and thinking about what the world will be like 20 or 25 years from now. Poverty has not gone away, which is a key point raised in the survey.

As a socialist, I am in favour of pushing back against capitalism and its agenda which is, as I say, an agenda of precarity, inequality and discrimination. In pushing back against capitalism, people who are a part of that pushback are also part of the pushback to defend and to improve mental health in this dog-eat-dog society.

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