Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. We meet again. I again express my gratitude to her for the commitment she is showing to change the existing mental health services. She has a significant challenge after years of underinvestment. I say that first, before I get into the negatives and positives.

What is positive is that there has been a reduction of 19% among under-18s waiting for more than 12 months in primary care psychology following an allocation of €4 million, which is easing pressure on acute services. Funding of €6 million has also been provided for the expansion of mental health teams, including CAMHS, with two new CAMHS telehubs and a Galway CAMHS connect hub. I am not familiar with the latter but people in the sector speak highly of it and encourage its roll-out. There has been an investment in national clinical mental health programmes in areas such as eating disorders. A sum of €4 million has been allocated for new specialist centres, in addition to the existing three centres, and there are 29 new mental health staff in CAMHS. Those are the positives.

What happened to children in Kerry is truly shocking. We felt for the parents. We could hear their anguish on the airwaves - the ones that knew in their gut that this was not right but trusted the professionals who let them down. That is one of the worst feelings in the world. Forty-six young children were severely impacted and suffered weight gain from sedation. There was also unreliable diagnosis, inappropriate prescribing, poor monitoring of treatment and potential adverse effects. That is truly shocking. I welcome the Minister of State's comments on the steps that are to be taken. We know CAMHS is overwhelmed. Referrals increased by 40% between 2011 and 2019 and there are more than 3,357 children on the waiting list. Of the 18,000 children referred to CAMHS in 2020, only 11,000 were seen. We all feel this in the pit of our stomach. The geographical inconsistency is just not good enough.

I visited Blanchardstown paediatric outpatient and urgent care centre, which is a fantastic facility in my area, where I had a heartfelt conversation with staff about how hard it is to have such numbers of children coming through whom they cannot help. The centre is for broken bones, infections and minor injuries and it has to send people away, which is truly heartbreaking.

I know the Minister of State is working on a budget, but she knows how I feel about resources and workforce planning. The shortage can be addressed but we must be aggressive about how we do that and how we ensure a pipeline of the right mental health supports and staff resources to deal with a need that is only growing. For example, the Psychological Society of Ireland, PSI, reported a shortfall of 118 psychologists in 2018. It speaks of the need to increase the number of psychologists by 110% by 2032, yet here we are again talking about the inequity in the system. People can dedicate their lives to becoming a clinical psychologist, paying money to do so that makes my eyes water. I would never be able to afford to have my children take on such a vocation. They must pay their way through college and then do a master's degree. It is only recently that they have started to be paid €27,000 as an assistant psychologist. If they choose to go into educational psychology or counselling, which we want them to do, they must do a doctorate and work for free for three years, while paying €10,000 to €15,000 a year. Clinical psychologists rightly get 60% towards their fees and they get paid. We need to make that equitable across the board. We have a shortage of educational psychologists, yet the people who are working for free are in educational placements for us and we are making them pay €45,000 for their doctorate. We need to address that issue. Workforce planning is needed. Let us increase the number of psychologists coming through. Currently, there are just 66 clinical psychologists coming through each year. We can do better than that. That obviously means engaging with the PSI on workforce planning.

The disability access route to education, DARE, scheme allows people who have mental health challenges to get into third level. A consultant psychiatrist is currently required to approve an application. We are moving away from the medical model so a chartered psychologist should be able to do that. Again, these are issues that I look at and I do not understand the barriers. When people who go abroad to gain international experience as psychologists come home after ten years their qualifications are not recognised. That is also an area where we can improve.

Tax relief has been extended in budget 2022, making counselling and psychotherapy a qualifying health expense. The new national eating disorder recovery centre is not yet approved by the VHI and we must move on that. I will talk to the Minister of State again about social anxiety. She is aware that I am on the board of Social Anxiety Ireland. That needs to be brought in as part of our national programme. We are ready and willing to talk to the Minister of State. The numbers are off the charts.