Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The website gov.ie indicates organisational information in relation to various roles and responsibilities across the Department of Health.

The Mental Health Unit falls under the area of responsibility at Assistant Secretary level for policy development and oversight of the provision of health and social care services for older people, palliative care, dementia care, mental health services, inclusion health, and access to urgent and emergency care.

Under this workstream there is a dedicated Mental Health Unit led by a Principal Officer. The Unit has a total staff complement of sixteen. The breakdown of grades within Mental Health Unit is as follows:

• 1 Principal Officer
• 1 Mental Health Policy and Clinical Specialist (Principal Officer Grade)
• 5 Assistant Principal Officers
• 6 Administrative Officers / Higher Executive Officers
• 2 Executive Officers
• 1 Clerical Officer

The Mental Health Unit has responsibility for developing and overseeing implementation of the mental health policy Sharing the Vision and the suicide reduction policy Connecting for Life. It monitors performance of HSE Mental Health services and supports the HSE on implementation of all mental health aspects of the HSE National Service Plan, including youth mental health and the specialist CAMHS service. It has responsibility for governance and performance monitoring of the Mental Health Commission under the Mental Health Acts 2001-2018. The Unit develops mental health legislation, including the update of the Mental Health Act 2001 in line with the new Mental Health Bill. It also has responsibilities at international level, including supporting the work of the United Nations, the European Commission, and the World Health Organisation.

A key function of the Unit, in conjunction with the HSE, relates to enhancing all aspects of Youth Mental Health, including CAMHS. This includes links to other HSE care programmes such as Primary Care or Disability services, as well as to other relevant sectors such as Education, Child Care or Youth Justice.

The Unit has the following staff specifically dedicated to Youth Mental Health, including CAMHS:

• 2 Assistant Principal Officers
• 1 Administrative Officer
• 1 Executive Officer

It should be noted that all staff in the Unit, including both at Principal Officer grade, spend a significant amount of their working time on CAMHS and youth mental health, whether it relates to legislation, policy implementation, performance monitoring, or service developments.

In addition, child and youth mental health is also encompassed within the wider work of the Department. For example, as part of Primary Care policy, GP Services, Acute Hospitals, Community Services, Workforce Planning, and all other health policy areas that are inclusive of child health more broadly. As such, any estimation of the resources committed to address child and youth mental health should be measured through the wider lens of child health policy and service development.