Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this today on behalf of my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who sends her apologies and very much regrets she cannot attend to take the Commencement Matter.

Despite severe financial pressures we have provided significant additional funding of €125 million since 2012 to enable the HSE to implement the long overdue modernisation of our mental health services, in line with A Vision for Change. Similar to elsewhere, Galway-Roscommon mental health services are committed to full implementation of A Vision for Change. The HSE appointed an expert group to review local community mental health services. The group's report was published in June 2014 and focused on residential care settings and resources across both counties. The key goal was to make recommendations that would ensure service users can maximise their full potential and improve the quality of their lives.

The HSE in the Galway-Roscommon administrative area provides an inpatient and community mental health service for a population of 314,000. They are at an advanced stage in the implementation of A Vision for Change and have already moved into population sectors of 50,000, appointed team co-ordinators and developed an overarching clinical governance model. The area has six general adult team sectors, which are clinically led by two consultant psychiatrists, and a multi-disciplinary team as highlighted in A Vision for Change. Each sector has its own unique service needs based on identified population, age groups, culture or other factors. There are 12 consultant general adult psychiatrists across the two counties, which again is in line with A Vision for Change.

Recent initiatives include the development of a psychiatry of later life team, the provision of an intensive home treatment team for Roscommon and the opening of an adolescent day hospital for the region. Galway-Roscommon mental health services have also been successful in securing significant additional new staff posts through development funding since 2012, of which the bulk are now in place and the remaining posts well advanced through recruitment. These include additional consultants in the areas of general adult community mental health teams, psychiatry of later life teams and rehabilitation and recovery teams. Allied staff include occupational therapists, community mental health nurses and social workers.

Key to modernising services in line with current and future demand and best international practice is reorientation from a hospital and bed-based focus to developing structures and processes required for enhanced community based provision. Any decisions in respect of the individual services highlighted by the Senator can only be addressed in the context of the wider ongoing service change I have outlined. It is worth noting also, as indicated on several occasions recently by the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, that HSE West has, overall, a higher per capitainvestment in mental health than the national average.

Every effort has been, and will continue to be, made to achieve change on a partnership basis, involving many different stakeholders on a national or local level and taking into account all genuine concerns relating to best operational practice. Above all, the changes being implemented, which are so essential to mental health services, are keeping to the fore the best interests of the service user, particularly in terms of improved avenues for early intervention and recovery. The Government will continue with the policy of modernising our mental health services with a view to providing the best possible service for those who need it.