Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Freeman for bringing this vital issue to the attention of the House. Along with my Sinn Féin colleagues, I was delighted to add my name to the list of those supporting this motion. I am aware that during the last term, Senator Freeman worked extensively with my colleague, Senator Devine, on the Seanad Public Consultation Committee, particularly on the issue of children's mental health. Mental health has been referenced extensively in the Oireachtas and in the public domain in recent times. Now it is time for us as legislators to work out the details of how we can revolutionise mental health care in this country. Senator Freeman spoke poignantly about who we are trying to serve. I worked in community development for many years. I tried to draw up a community response to mental health as a way of addressing this key issue. I can honestly say the system has got worse and worse. The services and supports that are given to people right across the life cycle have deteriorated year on year. I accept that there are areas of good practice. Some models of good practice are never brought into the mainstream.

I would like to speak about waiting lists. I can only speak about my experience in my local area. People who want counselling have to wait for up to 12 weeks. If people who are feeling down come to me to say they need to see a counsellor because they need some help, I think it is great that they are taking a positive step. However, when I make a phone call to try to get an appointment for such a person, I am told it will be months before he or she is seen. What happens to that person, wherever he or she is on the life cycle, during the intervening months? It is absolutely atrocious. If such a person opts for hospitalisation and presents at an accident and emergency department, the facilities are absolutely unsuitable. Services like addiction services that were previously provided at hospitals so people could avail of them have been taken away over the years.

When people go to accident and emergency units, they often have to wait for many hours and sometimes leave without getting any treatment. In other cases, they get minor treatment before being discharged into the hands of the community mental health services, which have impossible case loads, the next day. This goes on and on when people could be treated. People deserve to be treated so that they can have a proper quality of life. Many of the things they present with are temporary. When they present with things that are more permanent, they can get suitable treatment that will not impede their quality of life. Young people present with self-harm all the time. Part of the problem is that proper statistics are not captured. The statistics that are available show that many young people have died and are no longer with us because action has not been taken on the issues mentioned by Senator Freeman.However, if one were to look back on their records, one would see many of them presented multiple times at their local accident and emergency department and went into the revolving door system that they would not leave until they went to their graves. That is the situation people are facing. Twiddling around with things will not work. The system needs to be revolutionised. It is as if everybody within the system has authority but nobody has responsibility. There is almost a relief that some areas of the mental health services are so complex because a person can say it is not part of his or her role to deal with a particular situation and leave it to somebody else to take responsibility. That has to stop. As Senator Freeman said, the current system is designed to support the system and not to support access or those it is there to serve.

Affordability is another issue. There are people making fortunes in this country from the poor mental health of those who, because they cannot access a public health system with proper mental health services, must do so privately. They are making absolute fortunes from it. The system is designed to facilitate the privatisation of mental health services and that must stop.

If a person from my home area of Erris wants to access a CAMHS service he or she will have to make a round trip of up to 100 miles to do so. If a 16-year-old child wants to access that service, he or she will have to get out of school, get transport to where he or she needs to go and then try to afford the cost of it all. It is absolutely brutal and has to stop. Services such as CAMHS should be available at primary care level near to where such young people live. I beg the Minister of State to take that on board because this issue affects human beings, not numbers, and for many young people a minor intervention for a short period of time could change the whole course of their lives and the lives of those they meet.

The system is not fit for purpose and has to be changed. That is why Sinn Féin's alternative budget launched earlier this week outlined how we would gradually switch the current Monday to Friday daytime hours to a model that is flexible to the needs of those who depend on it. That would require services to move to a seven-day-week roster. The weekend service is very important but the services needed are not currently available even during the five days they are meant to be, in particular in rural areas.

Sinn Féin is happy to support the motion and I hope it receives cross-party support. I want to be positive and optimistic about that but cannot be because my party has tried to walk this road before. The seriousness with which it takes this issue was illustrated by the appointment of its deputy party leader, Deputy MacDonald, to this portfolio. In September 2016 a Sinn Féin Private Members' motion in the Dáil demanded that the Government put a timeline on the delivery of 24-7 crisis intervention services and that is on public record. The motion proposed that there first be a published plan for implementation of seven day a week, in-community services and then required the Government to invest in services to move towards a 24-7 model. The motion was very moderate in its demands and the timeline it put on Government, giving it a year to implement the initial changes. The Government neutered the motion with an amendment removing any commitment to 24-7 services or a timeline for delivery. Fianna Fáil, as silent partner of the Government, sat on its hands and abstained on the motion as it was gutted by Fine Gael.

I could go on but I will finish. The figures speak for themselves. Since 2012 there has been a drop of 13.4% in the number of psychologists employed in the CHO2 mental health division, which is my own area in the west of Ireland. It is hard to believe that the number of psychologists in primary care in CHO2 remains the same as it was in 2012. The figures speak for themselves. CAMHS staffing levels in Mayo, Roscommon and Galway were only at 57% of those recommended in A Vision for Change. I plead with the Minister of State that it is never too late to do the right thing and support this motion. Those services are desperately needed in Mayo, the west of Ireland and throughout the country and our children deserve it. We will get back our investment in mental health financially and socially many times over.