Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues in thanking the special committee, its Chairman and all the staff who were involved in producing this report. While I was not a member of the committee, I was able to attend its meeting on mental health.

Covid-19 has highlighted all the frailties of years of underfunding and mismanagement across Departments, be that housing, health, small business, transport, education, community infrastructure and so on. I could go on. There is not a debate in this Chamber on any issue that does not raise the impact of decisions we make here on people's mental health. Covid-19 has shone a spotlight on the shortcomings of our mental health services. The Minister does not have to take my word for that. He only has to read the statements of the witnesses who appeared before the special committee's meeting on mental health.

What the report fails to say is that during the special committee's meeting on mental health, the CEO of the Mental Health Commission said that the mental health system in Ireland is not fit for purpose and is out of date. He went on to tell the committee members that there is a need to invest properly in community services and to stop making excuses. Other witnesses told the committee that we need to start investing properly in services for children or they will not improve to the degree they should at this stage and that mental health needs should be put higher on the agenda.

This is a damning indictment of how mental health services have become the Cinderella of the health system. We are 14 years on from A Vision for Change and have moved on to Sharing the Vision. Ireland now finds itself in the middle of a pandemic that has placed additional demands on already overstretched mental health services. The Covid pandemic is a time of worry, anxiety and concern and it can add to existing mental health conditions or cause people to experience mental health issues for the first time. My phone has not stopped since this morning with people concerned about the impact Covid is having on their mental health, housing, waiting lists and other issues.

This system was already at breaking point prior to Covid. We had waiting lists to access care, limited out-of-hours supports and access to crisis intervention, an over-reliance on acute care for adults, a lack of mental health services in our community, children still being admitted to adult units, an increasing use of restrictive practices and an over-reliance on NGOs to provide the services that the Government should provide in the first place.

We need to develop at 24-7 crisis service and rehabilitation and recovery teams in the community. That would address the issue that my colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, raised. Mental health issues do not finish at 5 p.m. on a Friday and magically reappear at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning. We need to place mental health on the same level as physical health. For example, if one cuts one's head and goes to the emergency department, one will receive the appropriate treatment and aftercare that one needs when and where one needs it. However, if one presents at the same hospital with an issue that is going on inside one's head, one will not necessarily receive the same treatment. The follow-up care is often non-existent and too many people are falling between the gaps.

Next Thursday, I will be introducing Second Stage of the Mental Health Parity of Esteem Bill 2020, which aims to address the balance between physical healthcare and mental healthcare. Parity of esteem between mental and physical health will provide a holistic, whole-person response to everyone in need of care and support, with physical and mental needs treated equally. The relationship between physical and mental health is such that poor mental health is linked with higher risks of physical health problems and poor physical health is linked with poor mental health. If this change in attitude happens at the Minister's level, it will filter down to all levels of society and we will see the stigma often associated with mental health conditions lessened. We need to break the stigma once and for all. The effect of integration of mental health services with physical health services is particularly important. This Bill will place a duty on the Minister for Health to promote health parity to ensure that all organisations in our health system meet parity obligations regarding mental health. Next Thursday, I hope that all parties and none will support the Bill moving to Committee Stage.

See this speech in context