Those presenting to emergency departments with mental health issues, including children, are left waiting for their conditions to deteriorate, according to Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide.
Deputy Quaide, who’s the party’s mental health spokesperson, said:
“Today’s Mental Health Commission report highlights a broken system of emergency mental health care for our most distressed service-users.
“Successive governments have failed to fund each level of community and inpatient mental health and addiction services provision, and this has placed enormous additional pressure on acute services.
“Emergency departments as they are currently set up are extremely busy, medicalised settings which are the opposite of the calm, therapeutic environment an acutely distressed person needs.
“We need an end to crude restrictions on recruitment at all levels of mental health provision so that multi-disciplinary care is available in a timely manner.
“We also need to see proper detail and a concrete resource commitment behind Sharing the Vision’s rhetoric of ‘trauma-informed’ care.
“The failure to provide children in crisis with timely, appropriate support is a particular outrage, which has the potential to affect them throughout their lives.
“Mental health services cannot function without adequate staffing – the government’s Pay and Numbers Strategy will inevitably fail many people who need these services, as well as the over-stretched staff who are trying to run them.
“The stranglehold of recruitment restrictions must end, and we need to see proper capital investment in the creation of therapeutic settings.”
April 17th, 2025