Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

374. To ask the Minister for Health his views on whether 6.1% of the overall health budget is adequate for mental health as the percentage health spend in England, Wales and Scotland in 2012-2013 was between 9.1-11.9% and in the North of Ireland was 6.9%. [42985/14]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In line with the Programme for Government, my priority as Minister has been to modernise our mental health services, notwithstanding the severe resource constraints overall in recent years, and to prioritise new resources to underpin implementation of A Vision for Change.In that regard, the Government made available in the region of €766m to the HSE for mental health services in the current year. Taking account of the €35m announced in the recent Budget, and including specific funding allocations since 2012, a total of €125m additional ring-fenced funding has been been provided by the Government for mental health since coming coming into office. This funding has been allocated towards upwards of 1,100 new staff for the ongoing re-configuration of community mental health teams, in particular, and to underpin the development of a recovery-focussed and community-centred service. Bearing in mind the many competing demands on both the wider Health budget and Exchequer funding generally, this represents a substantial ongoing commitment to our mental health services.

Historically, funding for the mental health services constituted a high proportion of overall health spend in Ireland. In part, this reflected the traditional emphasis on an institutional model of service delivery with a clinical care focus. While funding may have been a higher than the recent percentage of 6.1% quoted by the Deputy, much of this funding would have been spent on what was considered a staff-intensive and relatively expensive model of service. In addition, historically other areas of the overall health budget in Ireland may not have received an adequate level of funding appropriate to a modern community-focussed health service. This has been rectified in recent times in, for example, the primary and community care areas, whose development is also important for users of social care services such as people with mental health issues.

In line with A Vision for Change, the HSE mental health service is now moving towards a more person-centred recovery model of care, with an increasing focus on community delivery. This model of service is widely agreed to be more focussed on the needs of the service user in the first instance. It is also considered to be more cost effective and aims for a planned greater integration of services across the primary and community care sectors over time. Therefore, while every effort will be made to maximise resources for mental health, the promotion and resourcing of positive mental health extends on a much broader range of HSE service areas. In this context, a certain degree of caution is recommended when comparing mental health spent with that in other countries as the structure and funding of wider health and personal social care systems can vary significantly from country to country.