“There are huge opportunities to join the dots around mental health services in Cavan Monaghan and provide much improved services
Making her comments to coincide with World Mental Health Day (8th October),Aontu’ s Monaghan Rep, Olivia Larkin said
Mental Health services are finding it really hard to cope with the demand for their services and many are buckling under the weight of demand.
People are suffering because they either can’t access the care they need due to long waiting lists or they simply cannot afford to pay for private care.
The pressure on people is inordinate – financial, societal and emotional and we know there is a serious issue with loneliness and isolation. We have an epidemic of loneliness which is a massive risk to one’s mental health, and this is being compounded by the serious cost of living crisis as people are literally worried sick under the weight of massive debt and it is having a terrible toll on their mental health.
We are in the fortunate position of having many of the foundations here and across the constituency of Cavan Monaghan, but we need more co-operation amongst services.
We have community teams, hospital services, primary care, voluntary organisations, Connecting for Life and Cavan Monaghan Connects—all of these are vitally important, but I firmly believe they need to work closer together to try to get to grips with serious mental health issues people have.
For example, Cavan Monaghan Connects was expressly set up to bring local mental-health information and services together in one place. This is absolutely vital.
People with mental health issues need ease of service and continuity of care.
People are presenting at hospital A and E’s, and these are clearly not suitable for a mental health crisis. We need to expand crisis services and develop a 24/7 Crisis Resolution/Home Treatment Service to provide rapid support in the community and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and ED attendances.
The opportunity is particularly timely because the HSE has further indicated that it remains supportive of developing the Crisis Resolution Service model locally.
Investing in counselling and psychotherapy is one tangible way of improving access to care for many and reduce long-term pressures across the health system.
“The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) called on the Government to prioritise four key policy and financial interventions saying it has a clear opportunity to address serious pressure on our mental health system by making an investment on counselling and psychotherapy in the upcoming Budget.
Aontú supports the removal of VAT on Counselling and Psychotherapy which is a real way to instantly make this therapy more affordable and our policy on this issue is shared by the IACP.
Early intervention can have lasting and positive impacts.
We’re living in a digital age so more use could be made of online mental health services and supports, and 24/7 crisis telephone access could be examined.
We need to really think laterally about our mental health care services in Cavan Monaghan. People struggling deserve no less”
