Funding of €37m needed for ‘worsening’ mental health crisis

New funding of €37 million for community mental health services in the upcoming Budget is "vital" to help stop the escalating crisis in the State, an Oireachtas group on mental health has said.

The cross-party group, which was set up to promote political activity, awareness and understanding of mental health issues, says the prevalence of mental health difficulties in adults and children is “worryingly high” at a time when services are becoming “increasingly over stretched”.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, who is a member of the Oireachtas group, said the amount was a “necessary baseline” of investment for the services.

"It's a figure on a cross-party basis we have come to. It's certainly not a ceiling or a maximum. There's a need for massive investment in mental health services in Ireland, " she said.

The group said it recognised the historic underfunding in the system. The total allocation for mental health was 6.4 per cent of the overall health budget in 2016.

In comparison, it said in Britain and Canada the proportion of funding was 13 per cent and in New Zealand it was 11 per cent.

Fellow group member Independent Senator Frances Black said the mental health crisis was "getting worse" in Ireland every day.

“We’ve had enough talk and now we’re asking for action,” she said.

“There’s not a family in the country that doesn’t have somebody in their lives that has an issue with mental health whether it be depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol issues, drug issues. That’s why it’s a crisis. Something has to change”

Ms Black, the founder of the Rise foundation set up to help families of alcoholics and drug addicts, said it was vital the investment was made now to help people struggling with mental health.

The Oireachtas group has also called on investment in community mental health services so it could to be made available 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the State.

It is also said access to talking therapies needed to be increased at all levels of the mental health services and early intervention programmes for families at risk to be rolled out nationally.

Green Party TD Catherine Martin, also a member of the group, said people in her Dublin Rathdown constituency have contacted her at times to say they could not get the help they needed.

“People were talking to me on their doors during the election saying ‘we need help’. Parents of children who needed help,” she said.

The group highlighted that staff levels for mental health services for child and adolescents, and high risk groups needed to be “substantially increased”.

It cited recent statistics from the National Office of Suicide Prevention that Ireland has the fourth highest rate of suicide among 15 to19-year-old across 31 European countries.

Other members of the group include Fine Gael TD Tom Neville, Fianna Fáil TD James Browne, Independent TD Thomas Pringle and Independent Senator Joan Freeman.