Sinn Féin general election candidate Cllr. Conor D. McGuinness has said that a Sinn Féin led Government will immediately set about implementing its ambitious and radical action plan on Mental Health.
McGuinness said:
“We are all acutely aware of the failures and gaps in mental health services. Despite the heroic efforts of dedicated, hard working and caring personnel in mental health services, patients have been let down by the failure of the outgoing government to deliver improvements in funding, access or management.
“The result is that mental health services are in a state of emergency. Funding has been stagnant, reform has been stalled, and waiting lists have reached crisis point. Since Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael came into office Primary Care psychology waiting lists have doubled. The number of young people waiting for appointments with CAMHS has increased from 2115 to 3842, with 491 children waiting more than a year.
“In Waterford, despite the mental health minister being located here, there has been zero progress on delivery of a JIGSAW youth mental health system, and critical roles in mental health and suicide prevention are allowed to go unfilled for months if not years.
“In contrast to the negligence and disinterest of the outgoing government, Sinn Féin has an action plan ready to go. Our plan includes
- local services as the first port of call for people with mental health difficulties, with
- universal counselling, statewide access to Jigsaw, and strong links with GPs.
- a new Child and Youth Mental Health Service to replace CAMHS and increase the
- increasing the upper age limit from 18 to 25 for access to these services.
- 20 additional eating disorder inpatient beds and community-based services.
- joint care plans between addiction and mental health services.
- fully staffed emergency mental health services and regional crisis response teams.
“Our plan also seeks to enhance and protect mental health resources within the health system by introducing multi-annual funding of clinical strategies and improvement programmes; building the workforce through strategic workforce planning across further and higher education, and within the health service; and by passing a new Mental Health Act which puts patient safety front and centre.
“Sinn Féin’s mental health action plan can be read in full here.”
Conor D. McGuinness TD 