Brian Stanley calls on Minister not to go ahead with cuts to the Mental Health Budget.
In response to The Government’s announcement that money put aside for the provision of 1,150 new staff for mental health services which is now being slashed Brian Stanley TD said.
“The Ministers plan which will cut €12 million out of the Mental Health Budget is indicative of how out of touch with society and what’s going on in the real world the current Government are.
In Laois alone in the last few weeks there have been 7 suicides. Suicide Prevention Programmes are drastically underfunded. People regularly complain to me of members of their families being discharged prematurely from Inpatient Services. Another area being affected is there are currently no child psychologist’s in Laois and waiting lists are piling up. To redirect money from our health crisis at this stage would be life threatening for many.
Sinn Féin has a plan for mental health care. Included in our Budget Proposals for 2016 is a commitment to increase the mental health budget by €35 million, to complete the rollout of Suicide Crisis Assessment Nurses (SCAN), to increase the number of inpatient child and adolescent beds, to increase the number of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) teams, among many others.”
Deputy Stanley concluded by saying “Sinn Féin have raised our concerns in the Dáil this week. I have now asked the Minister directly to clarify what mental health services this will affect and to put a halt to the cuts immediately. I have also asked him to reverse any cuts being made in Laois due to the sheer volume of suicides recently.
