Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Members who contributed to this debate. It is much appreciated. I have always appreciated their collective and non-partisan approach to mental health, insofar as that is possible. I am happy to be accountable to any Members of this House on this issue but I also appreciate the constructive approach people bring to it.

I am obligated to point out some of the positive developments in this area. It is important that we instil confidence in service users to reach out for help and make sure they know that help is available. If we continue the narrative that there is no help available, which I am not suggesting Members are doing, it will disincentivise people from reaching out. We have to get the balance right and be responsible.

The building of the National Forensic Mental Health Service hospital in Portrane is a major development in the delivery of mental health services. It is a brand new central mental hospital, for which we will receive the keys in the next number of weeks. That is a €170 million project which is on budget and on time. It will significantly transform treatment for some of the sickest forensic patients in the system and the environment in which they receive it. They will be moving there from the outdated Dundrum facility. The hospital will also include a 30-bed rehabilitation unit which is very important, as we need to put more emphasis on rehabilitation for people who are mentally unwell. The complex will have 170 beds overall.

The refresh of A Vision for Change, which will come before the Government in the next number of weeks, has been referenced a number of times. I disagree with Deputy Connolly's assertion that it is not important. It is vitally important that, as we learn more, understand more and more academic research is conducted, we revise what we do and how we do it. That will happen in the next number of weeks.

We are also updating the Mental Health Act and the heads of a Bill have gone to the Mental Health Commission for comment. The Taoiseach will launch a new mental health phone line next Thursday. For the first time, more than 1,000 different mental health services throughout the country will be covered under one phone number. A crisis text line will also be established before the end of this year. Digital online telepsychiatry, which I have talked about a number of times, will make it easier for people to access mental health services online. We are using technology to bring those services closer to the people.

As Deputies have noted, the budget will not be the solution to these problems in and of itself. However, it has increased by 45% - almost doubled - since 2012. For a number of those years, there was not much money available for anything. We have significantly increased the budget but I would be the first to say that more money is not the solution. It is about how we do things and implementing structural reforms. Last year, we hired 130 psychologists for primary care for young people. Previously, €2 million or €3 million would be thrown at the system to reduce the waiting lists and as soon as the money was spent, the waiting lists would shoot back up. Last year, we introduced a level of psychology infrastructure for young people in primary care in the community. That is now paying real dividends, and the number of people on CAMHS waiting lists has reduced by 20% so far this year. If we did that in any other area of healthcare, we would be very proud. It is important to recognise where we are making sustainable progress. We have more to do but real improvements are happening. We have also increased the number of training posts for psychology nurses. Deputy Mattie McGrath and others mentioned staffing. Some 130 additional psychiatric nurses will be available from next year onwards. This increase will help.

The number of children in adult mental health wards continues to disappoint. However, the number of children being admitted to adult wards in the latter half of this year has reduced significantly. I commend the Linn Dara child and adolescent inpatient unit on making exceptional progress in the treatment of extremely sick young people under 18 who must be admitted to an inpatient unit. There is now much less reliance on using adult units for young people. Furthermore, fewer younger people are going abroad for treatment as a result of the significant improvement in services at Linn Dara. The number of admissions to the centre has almost doubled this year, increasing from 57 last year to 120 so far in 2019, and successful treatments are taking place.

5 o’clock

I commend it for that.

Next Thursday, we will launch the phoneline which will transform the delivery of mental healthcare services. It will advise people of the most appropriate service in their area. It is confusing to decide whether one should contact Alone, Aware, Jigsaw, Pieta House, CAMHS, the Samaritans or some other organisation. The phone line will be a referral pathway, which is a positive development.

I hope to launch a €3 million community health fund on the following Monday. Many Deputies referred to the very good services being provided in the community. Deputy Smyth referred to Jigsaw. There are other similar groups. The fund will support work being done on the ground by such groups. They will not have to go through the HSE to access the funding as it will be a separate fund to support bottom-up community-led initiatives that try to be more proactive than reactive in the delivery of mental healthcare. I look forward to continuing to engage with Members on this issue.

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