Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Health the progress that has been made in the development of community-based mental health services since he came to office; with respect to the promised 370 staff for adult child and adolescent community mental health teams, 34 staff for suicide prevention and 10 staff for primary healthcare counselling services, the number of these posts that have been filled and are now in position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43010/12]

Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the progress of the implementation of A Vision for Change since 2011; if his Department's spending ratio between residential care and community care changed since he came into office in order to favour community care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43344/12]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 636 and 686 together.

Working closely with the Department of Health, the HSE, in its Service Plan 2012, prioritised three initiatives within the €35m of funding, ring-fenced from within the existing health budget to implement the objectives in the Programme for Government, to progress the implementation of A Vision for Change and to provide a basis for implementing the agreed Clinical Programmes for Mental Health as follows:- Strengthen the Adult and Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Teams to ensure that there is at least one of each required discipline on every team in line with the recommendations in A Vision for Change; Introduction of a Mental Health in Primary Care National Counselling Service Initiative to provide access to counselling and psychological services in primary care for those with mental health problems; and Further advancement of suicide prevention initiatives in line with Reach Out, the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

414 posts were approved to implement the €35 million package of special measures for mental health and of those 378 are with the National Recruitment Service of the HSE at various stages in the recruitment process, 231 of the posts have been accepted and the appointments are being processed, 109 offers have been put to candidates to express an interest, 28 posts are being filled either through transfer or are being amalgamated with other posts and the 10 posts for the National Counselling Service were advertised last week for a national panel. Most start dates are expected to be in December to allow for the process of checking references, Garda clearance etc. This Government remains committed to engaging these professionals as soon as is feasible and the work of completing the process remains a priority.

In the context of the clinical programme in mental health, each mental health service has been asked to identify an experienced staff member from the community teams to take responsibility in respect of those elements of the clinical programme dealing with suicide prevention and to undergo specific training to fulfil this function.

The budget allocated for mental health services in the HSE’s Service Plan 2012 is €707m. The HSE operates eleven different financial systems based on the HSE Areas which are the accountable structures for all health services. These systems do not currently allow for accounting by care group and, as a result, the information sought in respect of spending on residential and community care is not available.