Dáil debates

Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Other Questions

Departmental Staff Training

5:15 pm

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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32. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will ensure that all of his staff, departmental staff and all civil servants who fall under his Department undertake training with respect to mental health first aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8368/17]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will ensure that all his staff, Departmental staff and all civil servants who fall under his Department undertake training in mental health first aid and to make a statement on the matter.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department fully recognises the need to support staff and promote positive mental health. It has been very active in the provision of training and supports in this area in recent years with a very positive response from staff.

In conjunction with Mental Health Ireland and the Civil Service Employee Assistance Service, mental health awareness workshops have been held in a variety of locations. Since 2014, 250 staff have attended these workshops, which include presentations, discussions, case studies and group activities. The workshops provided tools and strategies to enhance mental health and well-being, increase awareness and understanding and promote the range of formal and informal supports and resources available.

In response to identified needs, stress awareness training was also delivered with the aim of giving staff confidence and control in managing stress and increasing coping strategies. The training is provided on request, with over 1,100 staff participating since 2014.

With assistance from the National Office for Suicide Prevention, my Department also provides SafeTALK training to staff. This programme helps prepare participants to identify people with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide first aid resources. Over the past three years, 640 staff have participated in this programme.

The National Office for Suicide Prevention also provides access to staff from my Department to the more advanced applied suicide intervention skills training, ASIST, workshop conducted by the HSE. Thus far, 150 staff have attended this two-day programme, which trains participants to reduce the immediate risk of suicide and increase the support for a person at risk.

My Department also continues to promote awareness among staff by publicising dedicated awareness days such as World Suicide Prevention Day and World Mental Health Day.

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge the significant moves forward by the Department in this area. I ask the Minister to encourage further advancement in the area, particularly as we know that in the area of social protection, staff members very often deal with people who have faced economic crises or are in poverty. It is in the interests of the staff to be able not only to self-identify and identify their colleagues as suffering from difficulties but also to identify people, including their clients and constituents who come to see them, as being in such positions. I know from my own experience as a Deputy that the vast majority of staff members in the Department of Social Protection are very understanding. However, I ask that, aside from the present voluntary work being done, the Minister ensure a programme be put in place similar to physical first aid programmes whereby in every section there would be somebody who has the necessary training to be able to identify that somebody is suffering a difficult situation or condition.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. Mental health and mental well-being are important for both staff and clients. Many of the clients are very vulnerable and very stressed and can encounter staff in very difficult situations. Staff members need to be trained to deal with this and can often be subject to abuse and very bad experiences. I have heard of many such experiences while visiting Intreo offices and talking to staff members there. They also need to be trained in resilience, coping strategies how to deal with these issues. As the Deputy heard in my initial reply, much of this training is available, and thousands of staff members have participated in it already. However, I am conscious that I have 6,000 staff members and that the numbers I gave the Deputy would indicate that most have not participated. We do not have any plans to make such training compulsory at this stage, but I will talk with the HR people in my Department to see if there is more we can do in this area and if we can make sure that we have done everything reasonable to give staff members access to such training.

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister's interest and appreciate his understanding in this area. Sometimes the difficulty is probably that the people who get training are probably the most understanding, compassionate people and very often the very ones who do not need it. I appreciate there are 6,000 staff members and that this will not happen overnight but I ask the Minister to consider the situation and try to speed up and catalyse the training for people both for the staff's own interest and for the interests of the clients.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In addition, we have given consideration to training all staff members in mental health first aid. This is costed at €350 per participant, so it would cost approximately €2 million to train all staff members in basic mental health first aid. However, perhaps it is something we could do for all new staff or all staff over a number of years. That probably would not be prohibitively costly. I am also advised that the Civil Service Employee Assistance Services makes available to staff members a range of publications on various topics. These include advice on managing stress, bereavement, suicide, good mental health in the workplace and building personal resilience.