Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline the recommendations in a Vision for Change which have been implemented; and the recommendations which have yet to be implemented. [13994/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Implementation of A Vision for Change (AVFC) and the reform of our mental health services is a priority for this Government. plementation of AVFC has been slower than originally expected. It has been delayed by a number of factors including the changed economic context, constraints in public spending and the moratorium on recruitment. It is expected that the appointment of a Director for Mental Health, which was advertised recently by the HSE, will greatly accelerate the pace of implementation.

Nonetheless, a great deal of progress has been made with the accelerated closure of old psychiatric hospitals and their replacement with bespoke new facilities, better suited to modern mental health care. Progress also includes shorter episodes of in-patient care and the involvement of service users in all aspects of mental health policy, service planning and delivery.

A modern mental health service is best delivered in the community and in 2012 a special allocation of €35m was provided primarily to further strengthen Community Mental Health Teams in both adult and children’s mental health services, to advance activities in the area of suicide prevention, to initiate the provision of psychological and counselling services in primary care, specifically for people with mental health problems and to facilitate the re-location of mental health service users from institutional care to more independent living arrangements in their communities, in line with AVFC. 414 posts were approved to implement the €35m package of special measures.

Budget 2013 provided a further €35m for the continued development of our mental health services including forensics and community mental health teams for adults, children, older persons and mental health intellectual disability Over 470 additional staff will be recruited to implement these measures.

In order to ensure that the additional resources will be used to best effect, discussions are on-going within the HSE, and in consultation with the Department of Health, to finalise the allocation of these resources. Each HSE Region is being asked to submit a business case against each of the identified objectives detailing how the funding is to be spent and the type and number of WTE to be recruited. It is expected that this process will be concluded in the very near future.

The Minister for Health has been assured by the HSE that the recruitment process for the new posts being funded in 2013 and any outstanding posts from the 414 approved in 2012 is being given priority within the HSE.