Written answers

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Department of Health

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Photo of Neasa HouriganNeasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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1004. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to address the delays in access to mental health services for children and young persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16786/21]

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Photo of Neasa HouriganNeasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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1005. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to implement the recommendations of the report of the National Youth Mental Health Task Force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16787/21]

Photo of Neasa HouriganNeasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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1006. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the implementation of the youth mental health pathfinder initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16788/21]

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1005 and 1006 together.

The National Youth Mental Health Task Force was established in response to an undertaking in the last Programme for Partnership Government. The Task Force report was published in December 2017 and it was suggested that the time-frame for full implementation should be three years. The report made recommendations in 10 different themed areas. It also identified lead agencies associated with each recommendation to develop and/or implement these as appropriate.

Since publication of the Task Force report, various recommendations have been incorporated into the service plans of lead agencies. The implementation of these recommendations has been ongoing since publication of the report and many major areas of priority have been delivered. In this regard, there have been several online support projects delivered to support online counselling, online CBT training and online signposting; schools have upskilled staff in mental health training and many disciplines have availed of mental health first aid training; early intervention projects such as perinatal training and family support projects have launched. Health and wellbeing projects have been supported and many NGOs have been supported to deliver local youth-specific mental health initiatives nationally through mental health funding, Sláintecare funding and Healthy Ireland community funding.

An update on the status of each recommendation is included in the attachment.

Implementation of a small number of recommendations was envisaged through a Pathfinder inter-departmental unit on youth mental health. In addition ’Sharing the Vision – a Mental Health Policy for Everyone’ advocates that access to mental health supports be based on individual need. This means that care plans should consider the needs of the whole individual regardless of age, gender or socio-economic profile. This will ensure that young people’s needs remain prioritised over the lifetime of the policy, taking over from where the Youth Mental Health Task Force Report ends.

The Department of Health and the HSE are now engaged in implementing Sharing the Vision and are committed to developing new youth mental health initiatives over the ten year lifetime of the policy.

The proposal to establish a cross-governmental youth mental health Pathfinder unit with participation from the Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth received Ministerial approval during the previous Government. Its establishment is a priority for me as Minister with special responsibility for mental health and is set out in the current Programme for Government.

The proposal is to formalise a new model for collaborative working within Government and place a Pathfinder unit on a statutory footing by utilising section 12 of the Public Service Management Act 1997. This section of the 1997 Act has never been used before. Various administrative, budgetary, governance and legal arrangements need to be developed and agreed to ensure a robust and workable model for the Pathfinder unit.

The Department of Health has engaged extensively with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and continues to do so, with the objective of agreeing an implementation option that fully addresses the above issues. The demands on both departments as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have presented challenges to progressing the proposals.

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