Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House to speak with us about CAMHS. I am a member of the Joint Sub-committee on Mental Health. As many colleagues have said this evening, we have seen the impact of Covid-19 over the past two years. It has been shocking. We have heard from our experts. We have heard from psychiatrists. We have had communities come in to speak to us.

I know that the Minister of State is aware of this. I know that she has taken to this brief with commitment and with clear goals that she wishes to achieve. However, what has happened, particularly in the case of CAMHS in south Kerry, is just shocking. I know that the Minister of State commissioned reports and that there are recommendations that she is seeking to implement. However, to me, this comes down to the clear issues of recruitment oversight, recruitment protocols and, as the Minister of State mentioned, oversight of governance. One of the clear issues she pointed to is the fact that we need a national director for mental health. Can we have a timeline as to when one might be appointed?

Directly afterwards, I spoke with CHO 2, which deals with Galway, Roscommon and Mayo. I spoke to some of the team there. They were in shock; they were so disheartened. They have struggled so much because they have been dealing with such a mental health crisis over the past two years. Everyone involved in healthcare is at the point of burnout and breakdown. People struggle sometimes to continue. We are seeing so many people moving away from healthcare. This is another matter of concern. How do we retain the excellent people we have in our healthcare system, particularly those working in mental health? Burnout is a major issue. In many cases, GPs are very much on the front line in this regard.

I would very much welcome the Minister of State’s support, and that of the Minister for Health, in respect of WestDoc and in ensuring that the region it serves has 24-7 support. This is because many of the GPs in the Ballinasloe and east Galway area do not have access to WestDoc. In other words, many of these GPs are working night shifts. They just do not have the wherewithal to continue doing that. As stated, burnout is a major issue. GPs are on the front line. They get families coming in and knocking on their doors. I ask for the Minister of State's support regarding access to WestDoc. Perhaps it could be considered in the context of the budget.

The other matter I want to note relates to the helpline number the Minister of State mentioned. That service was launched last year, and I want to acknowledge that. The number is 1800-742-800. The service is available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Can the Minister of State confirm that that is still active? I believe it was set up last year for these families.

I highlight for the record what our community healthcare west services and CHOs around the country do. These are specialist mental health services. Their range of activities include acute inpatient services, day hospitals, outpatient clinics, community-based mental health teams, CAMHS, general adult and psychiatry of later life services, mental health and intellectual disability, community, residential and continuing care residential services and sub-specialties, including rehabilitation and recovery, eating disorders, liaison psychiatry and perinatal mental health. That is an incredible breadth of expertise and activities that are being done by our community healthcare organisations. Yet, they are in our primary care setting.

As the Minister of State will be aware, I always speak about technology and about how we will use it to connect with our hospitals. Our primary care areas have been left in the wilderness because we still do not have electronic patient records to connect people’s healthcare when they end up in an acute setting to what they have been doing with their GPs and within the day hospitals in different regions. Technology is crucial.

The investment that has been made in eHealth within the Department of Health also has to benefit mental health. It has to come to the Department. We have to make a difference with this. That to which I refer is to do with early intervention and whether we look at more virtual consultations. Senator Murphy spoke about Castlerea and the wonderful CAMHS unit that has been set up there. This is absolutely fantastic. It is a change maker, but we need more investment in that. We need it to be seen that early intervention is something positive. If we can do that in a virtual way, it can be triaged, if further intervention is needed at senior and serious level that that would happen as soon as possible.

I mention also what I have noticed, as, I am sure, have my colleagues, over the past number of months regarding suicide and loss of life. It is rampant, shocking and scary. It devastates families' lives. It is happening in urban settings and, in particular, in rural areas. I know that this is happening in many of our towns. There have been incidences in secondary schools. It is heartbreaking for those families. It is hard to know what to do, because when that happens, it is too late and when a family’s life is destroyed forever in some ways. What can we do now? How can we engage, as Senator Carrigy and other colleagues asked, with schools at an earlier stage? How do we stamp this out? The Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has seen that one in three children are impacted by bullying. How do we change the culture and attitude in that regard?These are the key questions. I want progress on the recruitment of the national director for mental health. What is the timeline for that? On technology, we have online counselling supports, such as MyMind.org, and for anyone listening, its 24-7 anonymous text line number is 50808. Does the Minister of State have any further comment on investment in the technology within her Department? Of course, €1.149 billion has been allocated for mental health, which is a wonderful investment and an increase on previous years. However, I want to know about the recruitment and, in particular, how we are supporting our community mental health teams. What is the Minister of State's opinion on access to acute 24-7 psychiatric advanced nurse specialists or clinical nurse specialists for all of our acute hospitals that do not have psychiatric departments, so they would have access to a healthcare expert within the psychiatric area, who could be at a clinical nurse specialist level?