Healy says people being failed by our Mental Health
System and calls for a big turn-out at Thursday’s
meeting in Clonmel’s Park Hotel.
During Leader’s Questions on Thursday 26 th of April
Deputy Healy said:
“Children with Mental Health difficulties and their
parents face immense challenges to get an adequate,
or indeed any, service. Due to this, many children carry
those difficulties into their adult lives.
The position would be much worse were it not for the
tremendous work done by community and voluntary
organisations across the country. There are many such
organisations in my own area, including the River Suir
Suicide Patrol, Taxi Watch and C-SAW, the community
suicide awareness workers. These all operate on a
voluntary, unpaid basis and do tremendous work.
There is huge frustration among these organisations,
which feel alone in dealing with issues that should be
properly dealt with by the public mental health service.
These organisations need to be acknowledged,
supported and resourced, along with financial support.
Press Statement on Mental Health
We are failing to provide for our young people. We
need to do so urgently, it must become a Government
priority. We cannot, should not, and hopefully, will not
kick the can further down the road in this. They need
to be implemented urgently not in the next budget but
now, because this is something that is affecting young
people on a minute by minute basis.
Children and young people are being failed by our
mental health system. For the past three months since
February, young people experiencing mental health
difficulties have been admitted to the paediatric ward
in South Tipperary General Hospital. Today, there are
three young people on the ward. There have been as
many as five and their lengths of stay have been as
long as eight weeks. The reason for this, as we all
know, is that there are simply not enough inpatient
beds for young people with mental health difficulties.
Admissions to the paediatric ward in South Tipperary
General Hospital are totally inappropriate.
Nursing staff do their best. They are kind,
compassionate and caring but they are not trained to
Press Statement on Mental Health
provide mental health care. Parents, usually mothers,
must stay on the ward overnight to give support to
their children. Of course, there are knock-on effects in
delayed admissions for other patients.
Every day, young people with mental health difficulties
do not receive the age-appropriate timely services and
supports they need. This causes psychological and
social damage to these young people. It has a
detrimental effect, not just on themselves, but also on
their parents, their siblings, their schools and their
communities. Of course, it reinforces the whole stigma
regarding those with mental health difficulties.
We all know what needs to be done. We have had
report after report. The problem is we have had no
action on those reports or their recommendations.
I remind the Tánaiste that to tackle this significant
issue, we need:
1. additional inpatient beds for children and young
people with mental health difficulties
2. 24-7 crisis intervention teams providing rapid
assessment for those children and young people
3. a comprehensive primary care counselling service
4. a fully staffed existing child and adolescent mental
health teams
Press Statement on Mental Health
5. to resource and support, including financially,
community and voluntary organisations working in
these areas
6. a designated leader – a tsar-type arrangement –
whose sole duty and responsibility will be to drive
the implementation of these measures to ensure
our young people get the services they deserve
and need urgently. It should be like how cancer
care services developed recently
When will we see these measures being implemented
by the Government?
***END***
Link to full Dáil Speech in Leader’s Questions and An
Tánaiste’s Response:
http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20aut
horing/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail2018042600015
?opendocument
Seamus Healy T.D.
087 2802199
Workers & Unemployed Action 