Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is an opportunity not only to consider the report of the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on children's mental health services but also to consider more generally what is happening to our children's mental health. I spoke on this issue over three months ago, often citing the report we are discussing. It is disappointing that we have made so little progress, and it is devastating for the children and young people affected and their families that we are falling so short. The suffering and distress is overwhelming. We do not seem to get to the nub of the issue. We talk about the HSE and the opacity of budgets as well as recruitment difficulties, all of which are current issues. The Minister of State gave a good overview of the range of issues but there are children and young people in distress today and they are not getting anything like the kind of helping hand they deserve. We know there are approximately 115,000 people younger than 18 years who have mental ill health and that 23,000 of those have very serious and disabling mental ill health. The State continues to fail to provide the range of supports that our children so desperately need. While it is not true to say that nothing is being done, nothing like enough is being done to support them.

Over the past decade there has been a gross inadequacy and even decline in budgetary resources across the mental health service. We could spend time proving that it has gone up or down and we can change our accounting methods but the resources have not kept pace with the need. Successive Governments have continued to fly in the face of the recommendations in the HSE's 2006 report, A Vision for Change, for example, the recommendation to provide 100 inpatient beds for a child population that was 21% smaller than it is now. There are currently 47 beds which is fewer than half that number. We are ignoring people's plight. As Senator Mac Lochlainn said, we seem to require people's stories before making any change in this country. People have to bare their souls, pain, lives and miseries before we wake up and listen. We have all the reports and statistics but until we reach in to people's hearts and souls we are not motivated to change.

Mental ill health affects people individually but it also affects people from specific backgrounds disproportionately and while it is critical to take individual cases seriously, we must also note how specific groups are affected. A study in June 2017 entitled Homelessness and Mental Health found that those suffering from housing related burdens are far more susceptible to mental ill health. One does not need to be a psychiatrist to figure out that a child living in a hub or hostel, or not knowing where it will be next month or next year, will not have the same sense of well-being and security in its live as a child for whom that is not a reality. We know that the child who may feel it is different from its peers and has come to an awareness that it is lesbian or gay may also feel under greater pressure. It is no wonder Traveller children commit suicide at a rate that is completely disproportionate compared with the rest of the population. One does not need a degree in psychology, sociology or social work to figure that one out. As well as looking at individual cases we need to look at the circumstances of particular groups and ensure our response addresses those most in need of assistance.

Nowhere in the country is there a fully functioning, fully staffed and resourced CAMHS. It does not exist. There is no model of good practice that we can point to. Parents had to come in and tell their stories over and over again. We should not have to do that to people to get the change we need.

When I worked in the Cope Foundation it was not possible for children with mental health difficulties to be looked after by CAMHS. We had a letter from a parent saying that his daughter, who was in a most appalling state, had to be taken through an Aldi car park to get into CAMHS privately only to find there was no one there to meet and greet them. We also need to think about the fact that we have a culture of over-medication and about the dominance of psychiatry in the treatment of children's mental ill health. The dominant narrative today is that distressed or troubled children need to be fixed, without considering the societal system they have come from. This belief is deeply damaging, particularly for children and young people. I cannot stress enough the benefits of family therapy. Where is it? Such a service should be as common as dentistry for people.It speaks to the early intervention we talk about. A child does not come into the world mentally unwell, feeling anxious and worried; everything around them causes the child to end up in that situation. In our reform of mental health systems, we must also look at that. Dr. Elizabeth Gregory has written a great article on why we need to talk about children's mental health and the elephants in the room. I ask the Minister of State to accept that there is a serious problem.

Last year, I asked the Minister of State rather glibly what marks out of ten he would give the child mental health system. I would ask him that again and if he is willing to make radical and bold moves about making things such as family therapy a normal part of our response to children and young people and their families in distress.