Services neglect ‘costing lives’

MENTAL health services have been consistently neglected and under-funded at the cost of lives, Fine Gael and Labour said yesterday.

Launching their joint policy on the issue, the parties pledged to substantially increase funding for the services if returned to power.

They accused the Government of failing to implement a key policy report, and said there were not enough community-based services and facilities, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, therapists or nurses.

The parties said they would deliver “an effective and well-resourced mental health programme that will be directed, as far as possible, towards recovery”.

Crucial to this would be early intervention and shifting the focus towards community care and away from in-patient stays.

The policy launch came just a day before today’s publication of a damning Mental Health Commission report.

“One in four Irish people will suffer from some form of mental illness during their lifetime but the treatment of mental illness and the promotion of good mental health do not receive the same attention, investment and resources as physical illness,” Labour deputy leader and health spokeswoman, Liz McManus said.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said Government spending on mental health had fallen from 11% of the health budget in 1997 to just 7% now. Fine Gael and Labour would aim to remedy that situation by spending tens of millions of extra in year one of their term, rising to hundreds of millions more by year five.

There would also be a specific focus on suicide prevention, with a new national strategy, more funding for the National Suicide Prevention Office, and comprehensive counselling services for schools.

But the Government insisted that much of what the two parties proposed was already in place.

Minister of State Tim O’Malley, said: “Most of the actions are being implemented already and are part of the Government’s plans.”