James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Robert Troy and Jennifer Murnane O'Connor.

I wish Deputy Stephen Donnelly the best of luck in his new ministerial role. He is a highly capable Deputy. I have been glad to serve beside him for the past number of years. I look forward to significant reform and delivery that I have no doubt he will deliver under his stewardship.

I express my sympathies to the families of those who have passed away since I last spoke on this issue in the House. It is deeply difficult to lose any loved one. What some families have had to go through with Covid and burying loved ones without being able to do it in the manner that would befit those who passed away is extremely difficult. I acknowledge the will and the strength of the people for the past several months, as well as those who continue to do their very best for our communities.

I acknowledge last night's "RTÉ Investigates" programme. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our front-line workers. The selfless and life-saving determination of those health workers we witnessed in that programme is phenomenal. I acknowledge their compassion, dedication and the sensitivity with which they handled extremely difficult circumstances. What we saw last night in St. James's Hospital is reflected across our healthcare services. Our doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, paramedics, porters, catering staff and security staff in hospitals and healthcare centres deserve phenomenal respect and thanks. Covid is an ongoing situation. If there is anything we can do to acknowledge the determination and effort healthcare staff have made, it is that we follow the Government's advice in terms of continuing to use alcohol-based sanitisers on our hands when going in and out of supermarkets and so forth, to use face masks where advised and continue to remember the sacrifices that our front-line workers have made during the lockdown. It is not just our healthcare workers but our postal workers, public and civil servants, gardaí, volunteers, and staff throughout the public and civil service have done phenomenal work. They deserve a huge acknowledgement.

Covid-19 has led to an unprecedented interruption in healthcare delivery across the world. It has affected services across all of our hospitals and community care settings. The programme for Government pledges that the resumption of services will lead to the delivery of services in a planned, appropriate and considered manner.

I want to focus on how this pledge will impact on our mental health services and drugs services. The outbreak of Covid-19 has created significant anxiety, stress and fear among many people, reinforcing the need for a range of mental health supports and services. Sharing the Vision - a Mental Health Policy for Everyone is a new national health policy focusing on a stepped care approach to enable individuals to access a range of services that best meet their needs and circumstances as close to home as possible. It retains multidisciplinary staff teams as the cornerstone of support to individuals with mental health concerns attending primary care services. By providing more assistant psychologists, occupational therapists and other key workers, we will create a flexible approach and encourage more collaboration with acute services in the voluntary and community sectors. We will ensure that any new services, such as Outreach, are supported by community cafes and intensive rehabilitation units. Care will be provided to vulnerable people in a variety of inpatient and community settings.

The outbreak of Covid-19 advanced the development of online training, counselling and crisis texting in our health services. This is very much welcome. Through the promotion of digital health interventions, such as online training, safeTALK training and a new pilot telepsychiatry services, including in emergency departments, we will significantly improve access to mental health services.

A Vision for Change, the predecessor document to the new national policy, set a high standard for the development of mental health policy, but it did not have an implementation plan effected to ensure that outcomes were being measured. Sharing the Vision includes an implementation roadmap, with outcome indicators, and allocates ownership of the recommendations to lead agencies, with time-bound implementation targets against each action.

In further developing our mental health services we will work to end the admission of children to adult psychiatric units by increasing inpatient beds, as well as by examining the model of assigning these beds. We will open the new National Forensic Mental Service hospital in Portrane. The programme for Government also commits to examining the need for the appointment of a chief psychiatrist in the Department of Health and a national director for mental health in the HSE to help co-ordinate and make more efficient the delivery of mental health services throughout the State.

A health-led approach to drugs misuse will be key in drugs policy. Substance abuse and addiction affects people from all walks of life. By treating the use of substances as a public health issue, rather than solely as a criminal issue, we can better help individuals, their families and the communities in which we all live. I am glad to see that the refresh of A Vision for Change will correct a most egregious anomaly whereby those who had addiction issues were treated separately from those who had mental health issues. I am glad to see this finally being addressed. The national drug strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery 2017-2025, provides a roadmap to achieving these aims by promoting a more compassionate approach to people who use drugs, with addiction treated first as a health issue. We will also see the committee for Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery linked to the Sharing the Vision implementation committee. It is critical that there are cross voices on those two committees, to reassure and reconnect the connections between mental health and drugs issues. There is huge hope here but the key issue will be in the implementation of our mental health policy and our drugs policies.

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