Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. She has done very well since taking up office. She was handed a poisoned chalice, as were many other Ministers, unfortunately, and especially during a time like Covid. As someone who has worked with many young people, I have always come across the mental health stresses young people have. We have never had enough supports for them but we need them now more than ever before.

I acknowledge the great work the Minister of State did in fighting for an allocation of €24 million to mental health in the budget for the development of new services, in addition to the €13 million to support existing services, which was welcome, as well as the funding especially for young people for two new child and adolescence mental health hubs. Of course, we need many more of them as well. More than 11,000 children and teenagers accessed this service last year by the end of November, which is 20% more than the demand the health service had expected. It just shows that, even with those figures, the demand is there.

I wish to focus specifically on two areas: family resources centres and eating disorders. Next week will be eating disorders awareness week. I know people personally who have been dealing with these issues with their own children. I welcome the news that the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has ring-fenced €1.15 million in funding for the eating disorders programme this year. Some €6.8 million has been allocated to the eating disorders national clinical programme, which is also very good. However, I have concerns. We were supposed to be recruiting 47 specialist posts that were promised. I think the number is 20 so far. Perhaps the Minister of State might provide an update on the recruitment. What is the status of the 16 specialist hubs promised over five years ago in the national clinical programme for eating disorders, which was published by the HSE in 2018? I presume the Minister of State was landed with that problem two or three years later.

Caring About Recovery From Eating Disorders, Cared, Ireland is a group I have been meeting. It would like to come in to make a submission the Joint Committee on Health or to have a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. Cared was set up by a group of voluntary parents. Like most issues, it is left to the carers and volunteers to create structures of solidarity for each other. I have had to send people to this voluntary organisation to get supports because it can empathise and understand better than any of us because those involved are dealing with the issues themselves. It is a voluntary group of parents and carers of people with eating disorders, set up to provide support and share knowledge with each other, which has led to people being able to stay with their children and do what they need to do to help support them.

Research shows that most people can and do recover from eating disorders if they get effective evidence-based treatment from eating disorder trained staff. The trained staff in this regard are very important. Early intervention has also proved crucial to recovery. There are such sad stories about teenagers becoming three or four stone in weight, and it is so late in the day for intervention at that stage. Too many sufferers express feelings of being misunderstood, abandoned and lost while begging to be heard and taken seriously so they can recover and live normal lives. There are a total of three specialist beds available to treat adults with eating disorders in the country. They are located in St. Vincent's University Hospital Dublin and are only available to those living in the Dublin south east, Dublin south, and Wicklow areas. Cared Ireland is also calling on the Government to recognise eating disorders under the Mental Health Act 2001, because currently it is not, whereas it is in other jurisdictions. It would be important for this to be part of the Mental Health Act. Eating disorders are a mental health issue.

As somebody who lives in the country and has used counselling services in the past, I was able to get subsidised sessions when I did not have a lot of money. When I could afford it, I paid quite a lot of money. There is an affordability issue there as well. I see the family resource centres in rural areas often being the only place a person can go to to get counselling of any kind, especially for young people who do not want to ask their parents to drive them into the town or city for counselling.

I will give one example of a family resource centre with which I have been working and for which I have fundraised, the North West Clare Family Resource Centre. It would reflect the issues in all family resource centres. It has received no extra funding to deliver community affordable counselling for any adults or adolescents since Covid. The family resource centre spends approximately €30,000 a year, but only about €4,500 comes from Tusla. The rest of the amount is fundraised. That is too precarious a situation. The centre cannot be confident about the services it can provide. It has provided great services at affordable prices to people who would not have got counselling otherwise, which is amazing, but the centre is under stress to ensure it can provide that service.

The demand for mental health services is there but not the resources. In north Clare, they are trying to establish a play therapy service for children. This has become a significant issue due to increased anxiety among our children. They have a very limited budget of approximately €3,000 to deal with this issue. That is to set up the whole room and provide the services. There is a great need to fund and resource community counselling adequately to benefit all, particularly in rural areas where there are no other services. Teenagers ring me asking where they can go for counselling and say to me not to tell their parents.I want to be able to send them to the family resource centre with confidence and knowing that if they only get a fiver or tenner, they will still get the help they need. I currently do not have that confidence. Are there any plans to give family resource centres extra supports?

There are many issues and it will not be easy for the Minister of State to sort them all out. Everybody wants money for everything. It is deeply saddening that some secondary schools have up to two guidance counsellors but others have none. Some have six hours of counselling while others have 22 or full hours. It is not mandatory and funding is not ring-fenced. Schools that are strapped for funding may often take the wages that might be best spent on counselling and put them into other areas of education. It is really sad.

In one case a school had a full-time guidance counsellor with 20 years of excellent experience who was really passionate about her job. Her contract was ended and the school perhaps used the money for special needs assistants and other resources; it had to make that tough decision. A lovely old nun in her 80s is now the only person in the school of nearly 1,000 girls who is available for counselling services. I have nothing against lovely old nuns but she is not qualified and does not have a clue about any of the matters that young teenagers might deal with. It is a major issue. If we could ring-fence funding for counsellors in schools, we would help the teenagers and we would not have to wait for them to ring and ask me to look for family resource funding and get that funded. It is really important we look at secondary schools and ensure we have the personnel to support our young people.