Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government's response to Covid-19 to date has been nothing short of seismic as Ireland borrows billions of euro to protect against the worst outcomes of the pandemic. Recent positive news regarding the development of a vaccine is pointing the way to an exit from the coronavirus but the lessons of lockdown and its resulting effects will last for a very long time.

Our social fabric has suffered intense change and damage, which can be seen in current and future challenges to business, health access, livelihoods and mental stability. We have long known about the stigma associated with mental health issues but I doubt if anyone could have predicted the scale or range of the problem, or how isolation, financial hardship, addiction, loneliness, antisocial behaviour, unemployment uncertainty and damage to personal esteem could result in mental health challenges that are so varied and intense for so many.

In truth, our mental health services have always been challenged in trying to look after the chronically unwell. This has been exacerbated by significant underfunding in services and in capital allocations for many years. We may not be able to quantify fully the number of people suffering from mental duress but we are aware of many of the situations involved, the cases where mental breakdown, depression or suicidal ideation is occurring.

We think of the bachelor farmer who can go weeks without interacting with a single human being, the semi-skilled worker realising his well-paid job will never return and the business start-up that has failed and left the promoters with significant personal debt. We think also of the under-30s who find themselves unable to provide bankable employment such that they can get onto any step of the property ladder and the couples who wish to undertake IVF to begin their families but have no realistic chance of saving the money, thus being denied the gift of parenthood. We think mostly of the socially vulnerable who have started with a poor hand of cards, many of whom are targeted for drug addiction and migrate into homelessness and endless social exclusion. Not all of these situations have been created exclusively by Covid-19 but are being exacerbated by it.

The State's response to these challenges must be as full as the strategy plan devised to combat the coronavirus. Point 1 of that plan recognised the importance of individual life, regardless of age, and sought to protect it by deploying vast revenues to meet the challenge. The epidemic of mental illness in this country must also be prioritised and similarly targeted. A two-track approach to dealing with the mental fallout of Covid-19 should be considered. For many, this can be achieved through integration with primary care, the GP community and social care concerns, with help from non-governmental organisations, NGOs, as well as social security supports.

For those suffering more severe mental illness, ongoing institutional supports are needed and capital assets must be expended to meet this need. In my city of Waterford, our regional mental health acute services consist of a single facility of 44 beds with no access for children beyond emergency overnight admission. That is a region of 600,000 people and one of the nine model 4 category hospitals in the country. Underfunding has been a constant refrain for decades in south-east hospital services. We have had years of promises of capital asset upgrades to our adult mental health services and to provide continuing child psychiatry access. To date, these promises remain hollow and unfulfilled.

The Regional Independent Group motion calls for the Government to protect our population's mental health. It makes many calls on the Government to prioritise, build, implement and deliver. It also calls on the Government to build our human resource capacity to deliver on mental health and social care. It asks for mental health to be prioritised as a central part of the Government's continuing response to Covid-19. It asserts the need for the Government to re-establish a dedicated lead for mental health within the HSE executive function and to ensure that mental health is part of the universal health coverage by including care for mental health, neurological and substance-use disorders. Most of all, the motion calls on the Government to act based on the core understanding that we cannot value that we which we do not respect, or respect that which we do not value. It is time for the Government to value the work of our mental health services fully and to show due respect to those who require them. We cannot solve the national problems of mental health until we understand and adopt the position that we have taken to combatting Covid-19, that is, understanding that we are all in this together. We need a new, dynamic, co-ordinated response and I would argue that the basis of such a response is contained in this motion, which I commend to the House for approval.

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