Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. There are many aspects of it we welcome. It is a step in the right direction and many mental health stakeholders are supportive and agree on many of the issues related to it, but unfortunately, due to delays, I do not believe it will be introduced within the lifetime of this Government. That is unfortunate. Mental health is a huge problem in all our communities. I doubt there is a single TD, Senator or even a person who works here who does not know somebody affected by mental health. In my community it is pretty bad at the moment and we have had a number of really tragic suicides. There were two recently from a bridge on the N3 beside Connolly Hospital. People are so worried and so desperately concerned they are contacting me to ask whether we can do something with the bridge. I say that the bridge is not the issue and that what is happening to their mental health is the issue. There is a lack of services. We need to focus on therapeutic interventions and family support to deal with the mental health crisis.

A couple of weeks ago I was on a walk in our community. The walk was from Whitestown to Mountview family and youth centre. There were more than 100 residents and mental health and youth workers on it. People came together as a community to try to raise awareness of mental health and the huge increase in suicides. That is a regular thing that is happening now. The community have put together several walks because they are so concerned in that area.

There are a couple of issues I wish to address and one is admitting children to an adult inpatient psychiatric ward. I recall, as a family support worker, working with a young person who was admitted to an adult mental health service. It is something that has never left me. It was the shock I experienced at that young person going into that mental health facility. He should not have been there. There should have been an appropriate mental health place for that young person. It is important the information is digestible and there is an explanation of the Bill to enable service users, key workers, families and other health professionals to easily understand and explain what it means because sometimes this can look like gobbledegook to people and it is important people can understand what it is in terms of their rights. I commend my colleague, Deputy Ward, on his advocacy and work in the area of mental health and for publishing a comprehensive mental health action plan. I urge people to look at it because it is clear we need to change the way we deal with mental health.

I mention Genesis, a counselling service in Corduff. It is a low-cost and free service. I have been trying to advocate over the past three years for a simple sum of €100,000. That may sound like an awful lot of money, but in the general scheme of things, that is not huge.

The service could double its counselling hours, providing 4,000 more hours in a year, at less than one third of the cost of a bike shed.

With regard to a new youth and mental health service up to the age of 25, the most frustrated I have ever been was when I was a family support worker trying to access child and adult mental health services, CAMHS, for young people. It is difficult to access that service. The threshold is so high that many children and young people have fallen through the cracks.

The provision for 20 beds for people with eating disorders is very important. There are many young people with eating disorders who cannot get that type of service. We need to fund that service.

I mention emergency departments because it is heartbreaking. We worked with a young lad who I knew really well. He went to the emergency department looking for help three times. After the third time, which was on a Saturday night, he went to the local park and hung himself because he did not get the service. He was told a psychiatrist could see him four weeks later. That is not appropriate and should not be happening in this country with the amount of money we have. We are talking about billions of euro in budgets at the end of the year. These are real lives, and people are dying because of the lack of access to mental health services, counselling and therapeutic interventions.

I thank the Minister of State for bringing forward the Bill. I urge her to get around the table before the budget and get the money we need for mental health services.

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