A Sinn Féin government will resource mental health services in Ireland by an additional €250 million a year, and will also replace the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs) with a new model that will cater for young people up to the age of 25.
The party unveiled its new mental health policy on Thursday with a promise to provide universal counselling, treat mental health at primary and community level, employ consultant liaison psychiatrists and crisis assessment nurses at every emergency department, as well as developing an all-island mother and baby perinatal mental health unit.
The plan was announced by the party’s spokesman on mental health, Mark Ward, alongside finance spokesman Pearse Doherty, health spokesman David Cullinane, and spokeswoman on education Sorca Clarke.
A central plank of the new policy is the abolition of Camhs and replacing it with what it describes as an “integrated early-intervention service for children and young people to the age of 25”. The previous upper age limit for Camhs was 18. Mr Ward said that currently young people reaching the age of 18 are falling through the gaps when they are no longer in Camhs.
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The new model would involve the recruitment of 47 new teams for mental health services of younger people, an additional 17 teams for people with intellectual disabilities, 41 new inpatient beds, and 20 teams specialising in early intervention in psychosis.
Mr Doherty said that the initial cost of the policy would be an additional €50 million in the first year but that would rise by another €50 million each year as the programme expanded. He said that by year five the additional budget required for the new services would be €250 million each year (compared to 2024 levels).
The policy also promises additional beds for eating disorders, an action plan to combat loneliness and isolation, and the reopening of Keltoi, a residential dual diagnosis facility which can cater for people with mental health issues but who are also suffering from addiction. The policy also calls for crisis cafes in every city in the State.
Mr Ward said the dual diagnosis element was very important. “If somebody has a dual diagnosis of mental health and addiction they often fall through the gaps. This document will enshrine this in legislation and it means that people will get the right care in the right place at the right time. This Bill will ensure that no matter what door that person knocks on that they will be treated with the dignity that they deserve.”
Mr Cullinane said that young people ended up going into emergency departments to access mental health services. “They’re in the wrong place. Very often they get returned home. It’s very distressing for the families of those children, and it’s all because we don’t have the primary care and the community care services there.”
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