Dáil debates

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Women's Health Action Plan: Statements

 

2:25 pm

Photo of Mark WardMark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on the women's health action plan. I also welcome the plan but it does not go far enough. I will focus my contribution on two areas; perinatal mental health services and eating disorders.

Depression during pregnancy is prevalent and a specialist perinatal mental health service is needed. There is currently no mother and baby unit, North or South, on the island of Ireland. Mothers who need inpatient care are currently admitted to acute psychiatric units. A response to a parliamentary question stated that the specialist perinatal mental health service model of care published in 2017 recommended that a mother and baby unit be developed in Dublin. It is now 2022 and nothing has happened. Reports are not worth the paper they are written on unless they are acted upon. This action plan states that embedding perinatal mental health services in all maternity units is a goal this year. That is very welcome but it must be delivered as a matter of urgency. Shortcomings in our maternity and mental health services have directly led to heart-rending instances, including the tragic deaths of some mothers and children.

We must have a specialist perinatal mental health service that is fit for purpose and free to act in the best interests of women's health. In this day and age, it is unacceptable that there is no mother and baby perinatal unit on this island. Mothers who need inpatient care are currently admitted to acute psychiatric units without their children. I am aware that a preferred site has been chosen for a specialist perinatal mental health service in St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, but we need to see much more progress if the island of Ireland is to get its first mother and baby unit for mothers who require inpatient mental health supports. This action plan for women's health calls for a mother and baby inpatient perinatal service but it does not set a date for such a facility. Recommendation 53c of the Sharing the Vision implementation plan calls for a new mother and baby unit to be in place in 2024. Will the Government meet this target? Why was this date not included in the women's health action plan we are discussing? This omission does not fill me with confidence.

I will speak to the critical importance of services for eating disorders. There are currently just three inpatient beds for adults in the State for people suffering from eating disorders. These three beds are only available to those who live in the CHO 6 catchment area. In other parts of the HSE, adult patients are currently admitted to local general adult mental health units. I have recently spoken to families who believe their loved ones do not get the specialist treatments required when they are admitted to generic mental health hospitals. It often happens that patients are referred to generic adult mental health units and kept in until their body mass index has increased. I have reports that they are then discharged back into the community without any specialist help and with little follow-up.

There is no mention of increasing inpatient beds in this action plan. There is no commitment in this plan whatsoever to increase the three beds we have for the entire State for people suffering with eating disorders. The national clinical programme for eating disorders, published by the HSE in 2018, committed to putting in place 16 specialist hubs nationwide over five years offering specialist multidisciplinary teams of clinicians. Next year, the five-year target of delivering these 16 specialist eating disorder hubs nationwide is up. The plan we are talking about today only commits to nine eating disorder hubs. This is 57% of what was called for in 2018, while families throughout the State continue to suffer under the major strain and distress of managing this life-threatening condition and are met with wholly inadequate treatment and support. An eating disorder service was meant to open in Mount Carmel Hospital in December 2021. We were told this would be delayed until June 2022 and there is now a further delay. We need to see urgency because this is critical for people suffering with eating disorders at present.

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