Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the manner in which she has settled into her new portfolio. She has really hit the ground running, particularly in the area of mental health. I would like to highlight the work she has put into ensuring Thurles will have a Jigsaw centre open by the end of the year. This facility will provide a face-to-face service in Thurles which will be accessible to all young people who live, work or attend school or college in County Tipperary. In addition to this there will be online support and services through a range of digital inventions such as phone and video support, a freephone support line, Jigsaw live chat, email supports and more. Young people are facing increased rates of anxiety as a result of school pressure, social and personal circumstances and now the added stress of the Covid pandemic. A facility such as this has long been needed for County Tipperary and I appreciate all the work the Minister of State has done on this with me.

I stress the need to extend the Jigsaw services to other areas of the county, particularly the population centres of Nenagh, Clonmel, Roscrea and Tipperary town. These areas have for a long time been in need of mental health supports and services for young people. As the Minister of State knows, our county has no psychiatric beds and we need them in both the north and south of the county. I am in constant contact with constituents about the need for psychiatric treatment in their home county. Families and loved ones of those living with mental illness are contacting me on a daily business about this. At present Tipperary people either have to travel to Ennis or Kilkenny for such facilities. These hospitals are already struggling with bed spaces and I call for psychiatric beds in County Tipperary as a matter of urgency.

There are some wonderful voluntary organisations and I will mention Carmha in Nenagh working with mental health issues. It provides counselling facilities for people in need in their communities. It is vital that groups such as Carmha are provided with secure funding on an ongoing basis. They need to be supported through the State and also to have the assurance that funding will be provided on a continuous basis and not just on a once-off basis.

I highlight two cases of people in my constituency and the difficulties they have had with the mental health services over the past couple of years. The Minister of State is aware of these cases but I would like to put them on the record. One is a young lady who I have been dealing with virtually since I was first elected in 2016. She is now 23 years of age. Her psychiatrist recommended that dialectical behaviour therapy, DBT, was the best course available to her to try to deal with her condition. This young lady has tried to commit suicide on two occasions. I have been trying to get her access to a DBT course for three and a half years. At first she was refused access because she had a County Tipperary address. The course was based in County Limerick and people from the mid-west region were denied access to it if they had a County Tipperary address. We finally overcame that hurdle and now Covid is the obstacle in her way. This young lady has been trying to access this course for three and a half years and it just not acceptable that a person with her mental health issues can be waiting such a long period of time for access to a course that her psychiatrist recommends as the best possible solution for her, the best possible hope of recovery for this young lady.

I also highlight the case of a man for whom we have been trying to get a bed in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. This constituent has been suffering from mental health issues for years and is currently in prison on a minor charge. He has been in and out of Ennis on a number of occasions and each time he is released he is rearrested within a matter of hours for some minor offence. This man is unwell and desperately needs treatment. His family are worried sick for him in prison as his condition continues to deteriorate. He urgently needs to be assessed and needs a place in the Central Mental Hospital so that his condition can be treated.

I have spoken to a number of legal experts in the field who have all stated the same thing, which is that prison is not for this man and that he needs urgent help in an appropriate facility.

I understand the Covid pandemic has placed increased pressures on the Exchequer. I recognise the work the Minister of State has done in her brief and I thank her for what she has done for my county to date. We need resources and action at local level to deliver for voluntary groups. We need psychiatric beds in my county and appropriate treatment in suitable institutions for those suffering from mental health issues as a matter of urgency so the Covid pandemic does not turn into a mental health pandemic.

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