Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the crisis of mental health that exists in our society. The Covid crisis has shown the strengths and weaknesses of our society in many ways. We have seen huge solidarity from ordinary people assisting one another in big and small actions to work through the pandemic. We have seen the amazing work of our health professionals on the front line and other front-line workers in fighting this virus and enabling society to continue.

The crisis has also exposed gross weaknesses, in particular the underfunding of public services over an extended period and the resulting crisis. Our mental health services have been some of the most chronically starved of funding over years and the result is that they are struggling to cope with the pressure they are under. That pressure existed before Covid but it has undoubtedly been exacerbated by the conditions of Covid, which have resulted in isolation and alienation for a significant number of people.

I wish to mention the abuse of the issue of mental health by some Government Deputies and political parties of the right. These parties and politicians have not in the past expressed much concern about mental health and certainly have not indicated much concern about mental health through their actions, such as the cuts carried out by the previous Government. However, they have a new-found concern for mental health in the context of Covid, where mental health has been used as a byword for undermining the public health advice. Sometimes when people refer to mental health in this Chamber what they mean is pubs. One would sometimes get the impression that pubs are mental well-being centres, as opposed to places that profit from selling depressants. I do not mean to undermine the importance of socialising, of which for many people, including me, going to the pub can be a part, but I oppose the cynical abuse of this issue of mental health to push a particular agenda. I suspect that some of the Deputies in some of those parties will forget about their new-found concern about mental health as soon as the restrictions are gone. I hope they do not because there was already a plague of mental health in our society before the onset of Covid. It has undoubtedly been exacerbated but it previously existed.

The late socialist author Mark Fisher wrote, "Capitalist realism insists on treating mental health as if it were a natural fact, like weather". We need to ask how has it become acceptable that so many people, especially so many young people, are ill. There has been an explosion of mental health problems, not just in Ireland but right across the world. That explosion relates to the levels of alienation and oppression that exist within our society. The WHO has estimated that by 2020, depression would be the largest contributor to disease burden in our societies. In our country, a quarter of people have a mental health problem in the course of their lives and the figures are much worse for young people. Incredibly, by the age of 13, one in three young people will have experienced a mental health problem. By the age of 24 that will have increased to one in two. It is horrific that Ireland has the highest rate of child suicide of girls in all of Europe, and ten people die by suicide every week.

It is worth asking why that massive rise is happening. It can partly be attributed to the reduction in stigma surrounding mental health. That means an increased percentage of mental health problems are being reported, which is a positive. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, even in pre-Covid-19 times, we faced an epidemic of mental health problems. There are multiple contributing factors to that but there is increasing widespread recognition of the role of social and environmental factors. To be blunt, neoliberal capitalism has created a society with deepened and dramatic inequality. It has driven the atomisation of people and the breakdown of communities. That created the conditions, now added to by Covid-19, in which mental health problems thrive. The Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK has stated that inequality is a major determinant of mental illness. The greater the levels of inequality, the worse the health outcomes are. Children from households from the lower income deciles have a threefold greater risk of mental health issues than children from higher income households. That risk grows even higher for those facing homelessness, where the impact is massive. The risk and incidence is massively increased again for those facing oppression such as young LGBTQ people, who are four times more likely to have mental health problems, or Traveller communities, whose suicide rates are six times those of settled communities.

We have to take the stigma out of mental health but we also need proper funding and staffing of our mental health services right now. While we need universal access to counsellors in primary care, 24-7 direct access and mental health clinics supported by telephone support around the clock, we do not have that. It is also time we introduced mental health and mindfulness classes in secondary schools. We need to make professional counselling and psychotherapy services available in schools for those who need them, free of charge. A UNICEF report highlights that six out of every 100,000 Irish adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 die by suicide. As it stands right now, there are over 8,000 children and teenagers waiting for treatment from a psychologist and more than 3,000 of those have been waiting for over 12 months. It is absolutely scandalous that in this day and age anyone, let alone teenagers and children, should have to wait more than 12 months just to see a psychologist for what should be basic healthcare.

We need to invest now in proper mental health services for young people. We also have to tackle the general inequality in our society, including the crises of homelessness, poverty wages and job insecurity. We must tackle those environmental and economic situations that add to the stress, struggles and suffering of those fighting mental illness. For example, part of tackling the mental health crisis would be the reintroduction of the full eviction ban. It is tough to put into words the emotional strain and stress of being threatened with being made homeless or actually being made homeless during a pandemic. A full ban could at least remove this one fear from people's minds and it would not cost the Government a penny. We need to fight for a better society with a right to housing, healthcare, a living wage for all. We must provide the stability and support people need to overcome the alienation, to fight mental illness and allow them to flourish in full lives.

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