Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State the very best of luck in her new role. She has massive determination and an overwhelming desire to make a real difference in this area. Having listened to how well she is briefed, I am setting great store and faith in her ability to deliver in this very challenged area. I also welcome the very measured and informed contribution from Deputy Ward and I assure him we have signed up to a programme for Government that pledges to work to end the admission of children to adult psychiatric units. We also aim to seek the expansion of Jigsaw services for young people throughout the country. I have already had a number of conversations with the Minister of State on the provision of a Jigsaw service for County Longford. I hope during our time together in the House we will also be able to implement a dedicated youth mental health service in County Longford.

We have heard much this evening about the impact of Covid and specifically its impact on mental health. In reality, we had a mental health crisis well before Covid and it has not gone away. Nor should we be allowed to forget the patients, and there are many patients who, along with their families, continue to suffer in abject darkness.

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of our work is when families, often in the depths of absolute despair, reach out to us because they fear and in many instances justifiably believe that the mental health service has failed them and their family members. That is an indictment of us as legislators and a damning indictment of our mental health service.

Over recent weeks I have brought two specific cases from my community to the Minister of State's attention. Both cases feature young people. Both feature heartbroken parents and grandparents and devastated siblings. In both instances we have parents battling and pleading to get the care and referrals their family members so desperately need. We had one young person who was suicidal and self-harming and who genuinely felt this world was not for them. The Minister of State has read the devastating account of this family's battle for the appropriate treatment. The patient's family pleaded for access to a range of holistic treatments that would, they hoped, dissuade suicidal emotions, including the dialectical behavioural therapy, DBT, so desperately needed to help regulate emotions. That family rightly believes that this patient was failed not only by the HSE but also by the Government over two and a half years. Sadly, there are very few happy endings in this sector. Families, to their credit, do not expect magic wands but they do want to see a fit-for-purpose service based on intervention, real and meaningful engagement with patients and recovery plans.

If the Minister of State can bear with me, I wish to raise the case of the second patient on whose behalf I have reached out to her and to the HSE on a number of occasions in recent days. He has now spent an agonising ten weeks in isolation at a mental health facility. That is not the health service we, as a modern progressive nation, want or deserve. Staff at the facility have themselves reached out to the patient's parents and pleaded with them to raise this case politically and appeal for his transfer to a forensic setting where he can come out of seclusion in a safe and secure environment. I am pleading with the Minister of State to follow through on this and we will, I hope, see that happen. I have known this young patient for many months. When he is in form he is a wonderfully engaging young person with loads of potential. When the darkness overwhelms, however, he is sadly a different person. He is a young person with enormous potential, and his family and the healthcare professionals who have worked with them are anxious for an intervention that will adequately address the necessary care needs.

Over many years our mental health service has failed thousands of people. The service has come through a significant journey, but there is much more to do, as the Minister of State and I both well know. The two cases I have discussed with the Minister of State are just a touchstone to 100 more such cases. Let us ensure we do not fail them and we impress upon the service providers the need to respond and intervene as appropriate.

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