Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend Fianna Fáil colleagues on bringing forward this Bill. I want to begin by dealing with youth mental health because the Bill cannot be discussed without that context. According to research into youth mental health, 75% of such illnesses develop before the age of 24, with the majority emerging in early teenage years. With regard to Jigsaw and the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, we know that when young people receive appropriate care at an early stage even more severe cases, enduring cases, can have positive lasting outcomes.The recent Jigsaw report on its services highlighted further the importance of access and early intervention. Waiting lists for young people to see psychologists are astronomical but minimal work is being done to address the issue. There is a recruitment and retention crisis for mental health staff of which the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is well aware. While he has attempted to address it, he has done so with little success. Last year, only 44 of the 72 inpatient CAMHS beds are operational for young people. Young people are waiting out their teenage years without CAMHS assessment before being handed on to the equally overburdened and ill-equipped adult service.

Overall, Sinn Féin supports the intention and spirit of what the Bill is trying to do. However, we have some queries to put to Senator Gallagher. Mental health first aid is an excellent programme which should be embraced by all professional and public structures possible to ensure we have within our services people equipped with the ability to identify and address concerns relating to mental health appropriately and in a timely way. It is an important step in embedding a culture of mental well-being and destigmatisation in society. All of the available evidence indicates that those who undergo this training have considerably improved understanding, knowledge and confidence in mental health and are better able to help those in need. They develop positive attitudes and a greater ability to implement helping behaviour. The HSE gets a great deal of stick, and rightly so, but it must also be praised for initiatives like SafeTALK and Assist which we are trying to roll out to all communities. I have run four workshops in this regard. The initiative is creating suicide-safer communities. Most people are fearful of asking someone how he or she is. Most people will respond that they are fine and things are generally left at that. However, one often walks away knowing something is not quite right. This initiative gives people the confidence and tools, not to act as a professional assistant but to present as a warm neighbour and friend or classmate. It allows people to say "You don't look all right" and to open a conversation. People fear that they will open it up, bring it all on themselves and make the situation worse.

Sinn Féin had a Bill which would have provided training in suicide crisis intervention for all front-line public service workers but it was, unfortunately, ruled out of order by the Ceann Comhairle because of some cost to the Exchequer. While teachers should be provided with the training which best equips them to deal with the evolving challenges facing young people and with best practice in terms of safeguarding young people, the responsibility to address specific and identified mental health issues should not fall on professionals who, despite a duty of care, are first and foremost trained and employed to provide academic education. Teachers are increasingly being burdened with new responsibilities and cannot be expected to be all things necessary for the safe running of schools and care for young people. Mental wellness needs to be embedded in our education system from the very beginning but we must not pass the buck for mental health intervention and care to teachers. Can Fianna Fáil set out what teachers, as stakeholders, feel about this? Given the dearth of mental health services, where do teachers go when someone is in distress? It would be unfair and irresponsible to train teachers to recognise, for example, the symptoms of a young person suffering an eating disorder only to have nowhere to send people. The PNA nursing union is taking industrial action next week for this very reason. Their terms and conditions are having an impact on nurses' duty of care to patients. Only yesterday, I received a reply to a parliamentary question which set out that of the 72 beds provided for in-patient services for young people in the entire State, only 49 were operational. The rest are closed or decommissioned for various reasons.

Any additional administration performed by staff for the introduction of the proposal at preschool services, primary schools and post-primary schools must be included in additional paid hours if it is adding to the workload of the school secretary or other staff members. Has this been quantified? Preschool services provided in the early years sector are under the remit of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, whereas the Bill addresses the Minister for Education and Skills only. Some tweaking is required. The cost must not be borne by teachers or staff and training must be included in existing continuing professional development days. If each board of management is responsible for the compliance of preschools, schools and staff, will the relevant Departments do checks to see if each service or school is compliant? Will there be additional inspections or would these checks be carried out during existing health and safety inspections? It could all be dovetailed. We must work smarter rather than building in extra layers. I commend Senator Gallagher on this progressive, educational and, hopefully, life-saving Bill for our youth.