Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. We have a problem with the word "mental" because there is much stigma associated with it. I visited a house recently where the mother was worried about her 16 year old son who was involved in crime and was drinking. She said he would be better off in "the mental". I asked her what she meant by that and she said she would be able to get rid of the problem. If one conducts a brainstorming session on the word "mental", one comes up with words such as "crazy", "messed up" and "mad". We must examine the word "mental" before we proceed because there is a stigma associated with mental health. The family of a neighbour of mine, who was in St. Conal's in Letterkenny, brought him out for the day. He was not allowed to drink in the local pub because he was stigmatised as a person who could not enjoy one drink. Maybe we should have tougher legislation because we are discriminating against people who have a certain psychological well being.

I welcome the Minister of State's efforts as it is important to give credit where it is due. The community care approach taken by the last Government must be commended. I refer to a €3.75 million project in my home town. There is a day care centre and the health board will have the authority to allocate houses to 17 people with psychological needs or mental illness. We must be careful when trying to reintegrate people back into the community because we do not have adequate services. There is a danger if we do not get the right social mix because these people need psychological backup and support services. It is an important issue which must be addressed. I requested that Donegal County Council contact the health board to ensure it integrates people with social housing needs as well as those from a health board background.

I am being parochial but I am using examples which are pertinent. There was a project in Letterkenny where the health promotion unit used a theatre company to deal with the issue of mental health since we have a problem talking about issues such as depression. The theatre company brought in a group of 14 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 years. Issues covered included suicide, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism and drug abuse. I should not be giving away this good idea to the Minister of State because it could be a winner for him, that is, if he was to provide adequate resources to theatre companies to work on issues of depression and mental health.

I keep using the term "mental health" because we have not come up with a better one. We need to address the word "mental", the support services in community care and to provide resources to theatre companies in different health board areas.