Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, who is a regular visitor to the House. I commend Senator O'Keeffe on bringing the motion to the House. I second the motion.

We have had many discussions on mental health in the past two years. I commend the Minister of State and the Government on the work that has been carried out and the promises that have been kept. They include promises made before coming into government and the promises in the programme for Government. I welcome the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill that is before the other House. I attended a briefing by members of Inclusion Ireland who outlined how vital it is to give people the opportunity to make decisions where and when they possibly can in order that others are not making decisions for them when they are quite capable of making the decisions or perhaps just need to be assisted.

We have had debates on A Vision for Change and so forth. I would like to focus on areas where I would like to see improvements. First is the area of the inpatient child and adolescent services. A Vision for Change recommended the provision of 80 child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient beds, whereas there are only 44 between Dublin, Cork and Galway, which is not enough as I have mentioned on several occasions in the House. I know there will be an improvement in this. It is very important that children and adults are not mixed. I welcome the plan to phase that out, and although progress has been made in recent years, it has not been quick enough. There is a huge gap in the provision for 16 to 18 year olds. From my dealings with youth groups and people in statutory and non-statutory bodies working with young people of this age, it is clear this is of great concern.

When patients see a doctor, it is important they do not see a different doctor at each visit. I understand that doctors may be on rotation, but continuity should be maintained as much as possible.

The link between statutory and non-statutory bodies is very important. The HSE is carrying out excellent work. In my area we have St. Brigid's and the Ladywell Centre in the community doing excellent work under the HSE. The waiting lists are far too long, which is a problem everywhere and needs to be addressed. A new mental health service facility will be available shortly in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that will not encroach on the existing service in St. Brigid's. It can be a long journey for people based in one end of the county to have to go to the far end of the county. We need to consider that these are vulnerable people who may not able to able to make long journeys or who have become very used to where they are going.

I pay tribute to the work done by Comhairle na nÓg. The Comhairle na nÓg in Louth has done tremendous work in the area. Last year it produced an application highlighting the services available. The young people are much more forthcoming in speaking about their mental health than we were at this stage.

We talk about the improvements in mental health and that people are coming out but we have much to learn from those young people.

A Vision for Change contains a list of recommendations. They are not obligations. People are not obliged to accept them but we must ensure that schools take on the existing policies on mental health and suicide awareness because if they do not buy into them, they will be lost. They are recommendations in A Vision for Change but we could go further. We have an anti-bullying policy and a policy on the discipline problem but it is very important that we have a mental health policy for each school.

I mentioned previously to the Minister of State that a year ago in my area we had a public meeting in Dundalk of all the different agencies, statutory and non-statutory bodies and organisations providing services for people to promote positive mental health. From a personal point of view it was good for me to become aware of the different groups, and I am sure I will omit to name some of them. We have formed a forum where once a month somebody on the steering committee delivers a talk on this area. There are many agencies and groups involved in the forum but within the steering committee we have members from SHINE, Grow, the Dundalk Outcomers, a member of the Garda Síochána, a member of the Health Service Executive, members of suicide awareness groups in Dundalk and a member of Comhairle na nÓg. We have a representative of every aspect of society who delivers talks on this area but it is amazing the amount of information each of us individually and each of the bodies have fed into one another, so to speak, in that they were not fully aware of the service the other was providing. Once a month we have a talk on cyberbullying or suicide awareness. We did the SafeTALK. Last Monday we did one on coping with adolescent anger, which is a major problem for many young people who do not even realise that what they are feeling is perfectly normal but who become concerned and believe they have a mental health problem. Those talks were very well attended, and it does not cost money to hold them. Funding is not required. We simply meet to try to promote positive mental health. That is a cost effective way we can help to improve the mental health services in our community.