Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Now that we are exiting the period of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, I fear we could soon face a deluge of people seeking assistance for issues related to mental health. The period of the pandemic has challenged us all but, as we are all aware, has been particularly keenly felt by our young people. With such long periods of isolation and remote learning, it is really a credit to the youth of the State how well they coped with restricted living over the past two years. The pandemic placed huge pressures on mental health services which, prior to Covid-19, had suffered years of underinvestment and, as a result, were wholly unprepared and totally under-resourced in both funding and staff to deal with this emergency.

Too often in Limerick it has fallen on volunteers to deal with the consequences. I acknowledge the vital role played by many mental health organisations in Limerick. We have a branch of Jigsaw. It does incredible work in the area of youth mental health. The volunteers of the Haven Hub and the suicide watch teams in Limerick should also be commended. These folks give up their time, including their weekends, to be available to those who are suffering. Without their operating, particularly in the early mornings, I fear how much worse the mental health crisis in Limerick would have been.

The stark reality is that, due to years of underinvestment, CAMHS simply does not have the resources to deal with the influx of contacts in the mid-west region. The wait time for child and adult mental health services has doubled in the past few years. In the past five years the number of young people waiting to access critical community-based mental health services has not dropped below 2,500. This is a damning indictment of the attitude of this Government and the previous Fine Gael Government. I, like many other Deputies, have been contacted by parents facing huge behavioural challenges with their children. Half the battle for parents is simply getting access to mental health services, and the pattern is only getting worse. By the end of quarter 4 of 2019, 188 children and teens were waiting in the mid-west region. By quarter 3 of 2021, that figure had escalated to 364 youths. This is simply not good enough. These are young people in their formative years who need support. The failure to intervene early should concern us all. Issues will manifest and, without early intervention, will escalate and accompany these children into their adult life.

In April 2021 Sinn Féin brought forward a motion on the mental health emergency. One of the key recommendations we made was the establishment of a crisis de-escalation team in every CHO area. It is welcome that such a unit will be trialed in Limerick later in 2022. The scheme will allow for the triaging of contacts relating to mental health by a professional team of paramedics through An Garda and mental health services. I welcome that very much and I welcome this discussion. Sinn Féin will not be found wanting in supporting the Government if and when it treats youth mental health as a priority.

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