Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Parents across the country have been telling me of the difficulties they are experiencing in the context of their children accessing appropriate mental health care. They talk to me about hurdle after hurdle and being handed off from one service to another service, with no actual proper service being provided for their children. One parent told me how their child had been refused support, despite expressing suicidal ideation. Another father told me that their child had been admitted to accident and emergency six times - three times for suicide attempts - before support was put in place. Another child was discharged from hospital without there being any follow-up support put in place or doctors being informed of their suicidal ideation. This is not only exasperating and frightening for families, it is deeply harmful to those children. They have been left in crisis with nowhere to turn. These families expressed utter shock and, in certain cases, revulsion about the fact that the State spends so little on the mental health budget. What is being spent is well below both what was recommended in the Sláintecare report and what is spent in the UK.

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