Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If we definitely know one thing, it is that our local and national services would not be able to provide the life-changing and life-saving services they do without investment and funding. We need more funding in order to give them more means to help more people, particularly more young people. We know the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a spike in young people accessing mental health services and I welcome the €10 million mental health budget intervention in response to Covid-19. With that rise in people accessing mental health services, we have seen a further increase in waiting lists.

Waiting lists are often part of the struggle cited by young people looking to access mental health supports. Those waiting lists are a by-product of demand on an already overloaded service but in the case of mental health, when people need help, the last thing they need to hear is that they must wait to get help. It takes much courage to ask for help when a person is suffering with his or her mental health. It breaks my heart when I speak to parents who see their children going through this process, suffering with mental health problems and lost somewhere on a waiting list. They feel hopeless.

It is in this regard that I welcome the specific funding to continue the enhancement of CAMHS and the provision of two new CAMHS mental health hubs, along with the dedication of €6 million to expand the capacity of community mental health teams nationally. I hope this reduces waiting lists and improves access to our out-of-hours supports.

I know many people have raised another area today and we should all continue to do so. This is the need for better access to eating disorder supports for young people. We have seen a really dramatic increase in the number of people requiring support for eating disorders since the pandemic began and we know the matter is particularly relevant for young people. Last year almost €4 million was secured for the national clinical programme on eating disorders. There was a commitment to establish three new specialist eating disorder teams and the completion of three existing teams, and that will make such a big difference in treatment capacity. In budget 2022, the national clinical programme on eating disorders secured an additional €1 million for the development of extra eating disorder teams. That is a really good start but we must continue to invest further.

Many parents and young people find difficulties in the transition from child to adult when accessing services for mental health. It is a major problem because, sadly, that is where young people fall through the cracks and become even more vulnerable. Getting a young person the help he or she needs when he or she is seven years old or 17 years old should be straightforward. The priority should always be placing them in a programme or providing them with treatment which is suitable for their age and, more important, does not put such people at further risk.

This year, we have a record budget of €1.15 billion for mental health. That includes an historic increase of €47 million on last year and it is so welcome for organisations working on the ground. It is needed for people accessing services. I will take a moment to acknowledge the services on the ground in my area that are doing amazing work with young people. These are organisations like CAMHS, Pieta House, Archways, safeTALK, Aspen, the Beacon of Light, Somers and the Clondalkin Addiction Support Programme, to name just a few. In recent years, unfortunately, we have seen the withdrawal of some services. I am thinking particularly of Jigsaw in Clondalkin and I really hope the Minister of State might look at that further because we must support our young people.

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