Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

(a) To insert the following after “waiting lists for mental health care within the public system were at crisis levels before the Covid-19 pandemic and are now at emergency levels”:“—eating disorders are mental health disorders, which can lead to psychological and physical complications, and which require specialist treatment;

and

(b) To insert the following after “calls on the Government to”:

“—set up a taskforce dedicated to youth recovery, which should at a minimum have representation from the following: —Department of Health;

—Department of Education;

—Department of Social Protection;

—Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth;

—Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; and

—experts in child development, research and service deliverers to assess the extent of mental health need and support for young people and children and to create a trauma informed plan for youth recovery following on from the pandemic; —expedite the implementation of the Pathfinder inter-departmental unit on youth mental health, as committed to under the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future;

—dedicate ring-fenced funding for eating disorders to ensure all eating disorder hubs are operating and ensure there is a community eating disorder team accessible in every Community Healthcare Organisation area.”

I commend Deputy Ward and Sinn Féin on introducing the motion, which is timely and hugely relevant. We have tabled an amendment, which has a specific ask within it. It is welcome that the Minister of State is not opposing the motion. My amendment has a very specific ask, that is, that we would have an interdepartmental task force to examine and address youth mental health trauma. If the Minister of State does not oppose the amendment, I ask that she would take action to deliver upon it because to do otherwise would lead to accusations of being a little bit cute in how we approach this parliamentary engagement.

Our amendment seeks to illuminate the shadow pandemic, which is the wave of trauma, poor mental health and the negative impact and experiences that have been felt by young people all over this country. The mental health burden associated with the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be profound and to be felt for many years to come. Today may be one of the final opportunities to speak of what we need and deserve as we start, hopefully, to begin to ascend towards a recovery. However, recovery will not just be economic and it will not happen by reopening schools alone. Recovery will happen when we acknowledge the fact that people, in particular young people, have suffered and when we seek to address it but to address it, we must first seek to identify it. We have not put any budgetary demands in our amendment. We have not set out exactly what needs to happen; what we have asked for is an interdepartmental task force that includes experts in child and adolescent experiences and children and young people themselves. Such involvement has been demonstrated by the secondary schools' student union, which campaigned on the leaving certificate and was around the table over the course of weeks and months and able to identify the problem and set a pathway by which we can deliver a solution.

There has been some research into children's experience of traumatic events such as following natural disasters and it indicates long-lasting effects on psychological well-being. The effects are often greater for those who are most vulnerable. We cannot unsee the experiences that have been felt. We have heard about an increase in domestic violence and substance misuse. The Government has set up task forces for the recovery of the tourism industry and the arts. Many recovery task forces have been set up and we believe this one is of the most fundamental importance.

While young people are less susceptible to severe Covid-19 infection, they are more at risk in respect of the negative psychosocial effects of the pandemic, including experiencing bereavement due to the deaths of people who have died as a result of Covid, as the age pattern of bereavement does not mirror the age pattern of Covid mortality. We have seen the closure of school buildings, the loss of extracurricular activities such as sport, music, dance and decreased contact with peers and all that will have a profound effect on young people.

Simply to offer words is simply to offer tokenism that will lead to nothing unless we deliver meaningful actions.

To be very clear, none of us knows the extent of the problem. We can talk about it and say there is a wave of youth mental health trauma but we do not know the full extent of it, and we cannot unless we begin to try to engage with and peer into it. For example, we do not know how many young people have disengaged from education during the pandemic. We do not know how many children or young people are struggling with their mental health due to issues that have been amplified by or are a result of the pandemic. We do not know how many children or young people have had adverse childhood experiences over the past 14 months.

There have been well documented shadow pandemics of domestic violence and increased alcohol consumption and violence in the home, which may result in serious emotional and behavioural problems in the future. We have known all of this anecdotally, but we do not have the figures or a pathway to identify the extent of the problem.

In March 2021 the national clinical programme for eating disorders experienced a 66% increase in referrals compared with 2020, one in four of which was deemed to be urgent. Yet, just three of the 16 proposed community teams for those suffering from eating disorders have been established. That is simply unacceptable.

Our amendment also highlights outstanding commitments in the national youth mental health task force in 2017, including the pathfinder unit which I added to the amendment to the motion to expedite its implementation. This previous task force does not answer the extent of trauma emerging from Covid. We need a task force that is interdepartmental and with expert voices to assess the extent of need and create a trauma-informed recovery plan. The phrase "trauma-informed" is probably the most important aspect of what we are asking for.

Speaking to the Northern Ireland Assembly committee for health in March 2021, interim mental health champion Professor Siobhán O'Neill spoke of the need for a trauma-informed recovery plan to address the stress and trauma caused by the pandemic. The phrase "trauma-informed" recognises that while our well-being can be impacted by our normal emotional responses to what has happened over the past year, for most of us the pandemic will not have caused increased trauma or mental illness. It also recognises that several population groups have been disproportionately affected and have suffered very real trauma, which comes on top of previous traumas. These are the groups we need to target in our preventative interventions and treatments, if treatments are necessary.

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