Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

World Mental Health Day brings into sharp focus the problems we deal with all the time throughout the country regarding mental health issues. Practically every family, to some extent or other, is affected. As public representatives, we deal with this on an ongoing basis. When I was a councillor, we used to say we were counsellors as well as councillors. When people came into our offices to talk to us about various issues, that private space to talk to somebody facilitated the conversation and we ended up developing skills without ever getting training on how to deal with people in those circumstances.

There is an acute element here that we really need to look at and that is the provision of services for people who are suicidal or self-harming and have really serious and long-lasting problems. Reference was made to SOSAD. In my region, there is an organisation called North West STOP. It was set up by families who had lost children to suicide. It provides counselling and other services for people. If this organisation did not exist, many more people would drop through the net. It cannot receive funding because it is not a national organisation, yet without it we would be in turmoil.

Maggie was mentioned earlier. She lives in my constituency. I spoke to the Minister of State about her before. I have raised the matter several times, in fact. The issue is that CAMHS will not deal with her because she has an intellectual disability and there is no intellectual disability team. I thought it was ironic that in her opening statement the Minister of State mentioned that a CAMHS eating disorder team will be set up in Limerick. What about the rest of the country? What about a child from Louth, Leitrim, Mayo or somewhere else who needs access to that team? I take it they will not have it if it is not in their CHO.

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