Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 205:

In page 95, line 6, after “the” to insert “rights and”.

Amendment No. 205 is a technical amendment to include protection of a person’s rights, along with their interests, in the functions of the commission. I do not intend to support amendment No. 206 as this amendment duplicates what is already in the Bill elsewhere.

Section 177 of the Bill provides for the commission to make codes of practice regarding various matters under the Bill, including the preparation and issuing of a code of practice on capacity assessments. Section 177(2) provides for the commission to publish a draft of any code of practice and allows any person to make representations about the draft. The commission is required to consider any representations before finalising and issuing the final code. Section 177 also provides for the commission to amend or revoke a code as necessary.

Section 181 of the Bill, as initiated, provides for the Minister to make regulations regarding care plans. I note there is an amendment from Sinn Féin to delete and replace section 181 so that the Minister would not have the ability to make regulations on care plans. I believe section 181 of the Bill, as initiated, is necessary.

Amendments Nos. 209 and 210 are technical amendments to insert a reference to the CEO with the staff of the Mental Health Commission, in regard to amending the superannuation scheme, as the CEO is not covered in staff of the commission provisions.

I do not intend to support amendment No. 211 because I do not think that this is appropriate for primary legislation. The commission is independent in its functions and I have concerns about dictating what the commission must include in its annual report in primary legislation.

The commission is not responsible for implementing mental health services; it is the regulator. It would be inappropriate to require the commission to estimate the required numbers of whole time equivalents and funding in mental health services. Similarly, it would be inappropriate to require the commission to develop a youth mental health clinical specialty. The allocation of fully staffed mental health services and estimating levels of new additional funding are both resource allocation matters for the Minister for Health and the Government as a whole to consider as part of the annual Estimates process, and is not a function appropriate to the commission.

Furthermore, the reference to CAMHS in this amendment is inappropriate. The term "CAMHS" is not defined anywhere in the Bill, nor are child and youth mental health services. However, I believe in the importance of the transition from child mental health services to adult mental health services.

Recommendation No. 36 of Sharing the Vision indicates that appropriate supports should be provided for on an interim basis to service users transitioning from CAMHS to general adult mental health services. The age of transition should be moved from 18 to 25, and future supports should reflect this. This is being progressed under the implementation of Sharing the Vision.

The enhanced transition between CAMHS and general adult mental health services is also a key theme of the new child and youth mental health action plan, which was launched recently. The plan includes implementing the enhanced transition plan developed by the Sharing the Vision youth mental health transitions specialist group for children moving from CAMHS to general adult mental health services. The enhanced transition plan recommends that moving from CAMHS to general adult mental health services be treated as a continuation of care, rather than as a new referral, which is important.

The action plan also includes revising the CAMHS operational guidelines to ensure the recommendations from the enhanced transition plan are considered and ensuring any operational guidance for general adult mental health services aligns with the recommendations of the enhanced transition plan.

Other elements of the action plan include robust governance structures that enable national oversight of the implementation of the enhanced transition plan and continuing to survey people to seek their views and experience of transitioning from CAMHS to adult mental health services. This will ensure that when young people move from child and youth mental health services to adult mental health services it will be a seamless transition of care.

I do not intend to support amendment No. 212. I do not believe this requires an amendment in primary legislation. The Bill strengthens the requirement that people receiving treatment in a registered acute mental health centre be given information on the complaints procedure in the centre. This is true for involuntary and voluntary admitted people. The 2006 approved centre regulations include a regulation relating to complaints procedures. These regulations will be replaced under the new enactment and I expect greater detail on complaints procedures will be included in the new regulations. I refer again to what I spoke about a few minutes ago, regarding patient advocacy services in every long-term residential care facility. We are rolling these out at present.

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