Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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653. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department has carried or will consider carrying out a review of mental health services and supports for children and young persons in view of the fact that Ireland has the fourth highest rate of child and adolescent suicide in the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7036/17]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In 2015 the Government launched ‘Connecting for Life’, our national strategy to reduce suicide for the period 2015 – 2020. A large part of the Strategy is focused on youth mental health, and sets out a vision where fewer lives are lost through suicide, and where communities and individuals are empowered to improve their mental health and well-being. The National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) oversees the implementation of this strategy. The Strategy assigns specific responsibility to NOSP as a statutory agency to fulfil a number of tasks, including the development and provision of suicide prevention training and education programmes, increasing national awareness about suicide prevention and setting out a national suicide research and prevention programme. In this way there is on-going oversight of the supports that are in place across the country for children and young people.

The Department of Health is currently leading the review of A Vision for Change with a view to the development of a successor policy which will complete the process of modernising mental health services and effectively promoting mental health, for both adults and children. In the first instance, an expert review and analysis of international evidence and best practice in the development of mental health services, including a review of current delivery of services in Ireland, has recently been completed. This expert review will provide evidence to determine the policy direction for a revision of 'A Vision for Change'. An Oversight Committee will also be established within three months of completion of the expert review to oversee the development of a new policy, informed by the expert review.

In addition, I have convened and Chair the National Taskforce on Youth Mental Health. This group is considering how best to introduce and teach resilience and coping mechanisms to children and young people. The aim of the Taskforce is to provide national leadership on youth mental health and wellbeing in order to enhance how the public, private and voluntary and community sectors work together to improve; emotional literacy in the population; awareness of services and supports; accessibility to services and supports at different times and in different areas; and alignment of services and supports across different providers (public organisations, private organisations, community organisations, voluntary organisations, etc.).

The Taskforce is a small, diverse group of 18 leading national figures that represent a number of different sectors.It is an action-focused group, has met monthly since September 2016 and will work for 12-18 months. It has visited frontline services, and met with service users, parents and staff. As part of my commitment to ensuring that the voices of children and young people are at the core of the work of the Taskforce, a series of consultations with young people has commenced.