The Government’s mental health strategy is failing young people

Imagine a friendly, community-based mental health service that caters for each and every person at all stages of their lives.

Actually, you shouldn’t need to imagine it: you should be able to use it, because it was promised 23 years ago by government policy document Planning For The Future.
Since then, an already sad story has become positively bleak. At present, one in four Irish people experience a serious personal, emotional or mental health difficulty in their lives, and we regularly figure at the top of European suicide-rate tables. The rate is so high that it is now the leading cause of death among young Irish males, claiming a higher death toll than our lethal roadways.
Given the emotional turmoil attendant upon adolescence, it’s less than surprising to learn that the problem is particularly acute among Irish teens. The statistics bear this out: 10% of Irish teens deliberately self-harm. 20% suffer a psychological disturbance of some kind. The suicide rate in the 14-24 demographic places Ireland fifth in Europe.
However, the tragedy almost becomes a farce when we consider that, despite the steady increase in suicide rates over the 1990s, the proportion of the health budget allocated to mental health has decreased from 11% to 7%. Even though faced with acres of newsprint on suicide pacts, antisocial behaviour and eating disorders – obvious distress calls from troubled teens – no specialised mental health service exists for young people aged between 16 and 25. This latter point is in contravention of the UN Convention On The Rights Of the Child, ratified by the Irish government in 1992.
It’s all too easy to lay the blame at the feet of successive governments, however. Budget 2007 allocated €25m to mental health services and aimed€8m at youth-related initiatives. 2006 policy document Vision For Change was aimed at bringing in the reforms promised in 1984.
This makes it clear that the government aren’t completely indifferent to mental health issues. They’re just under the illusion that they’re doing enough.
Because in politics, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The weapons of elections are issues, and the most talked-about issues are the most powerful weapons – and not enough people are talking about mental health.
While there are any number of vocal and hard-working mental health lobby groups in this country, the calls for reform in this vital service are drowned out by louder howls.
These groups aren’t perceived as having the same popular base as, say, a group demanding shorter waiting lists at hospitals. That’s why the government’s reaction to calls for mental health service reform is to say ‘We’re doing enough!’.
Now, here’s where we come in. We’re the reason the government think it’s okay to leave the services the way they are; to over-emphasise medication and allocate a measly number of hospital beds to psychiatric care; to treat children with psychological difficulties in adult wards; to continue a policy of involuntary detention that’s far above the European norm. As long as we think it’s okay – or at least don’t think it’s an urgent matter – this will continue. The government have failed to deal with the problem, but we’ve let them do it. And they’ll have an even bigger problem to deal with if they don’t act on youth mental health, because what’s a crisis now will become chaos later.
I’m a youth advisor to Headstrong, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, because of my participation in Mental Health Ireland’s 2006 public speaking competition. One of the main things I’ve learned is how good the mental health system could be – if we could just bring enough pressure to bear on the government. At present, voluntary organisations have been forced to step into the breach, and they’ve developed innovative ideas that will mean revolution if they get the exposure they deserve. Samaritans have just launched a text and email support system, and famously handed out contact cards at Leaving Cert celebrations on Wednesday. Meanwhile, centres such as Waterford’s The Squashy Couch offer a helping hand and a friendly face – without making it obvious what they’re there for. If such initiatives became State-endorsed methods of dealing with youth mental health, the tide of tragedy could be turned.
Headstrong have their own project, aimed at providing the comprehensive community service promised in Planning For The Future. Given that their CEO is Dr. Tony Bates – one of the advisors to Vision For Change – they know quite well how that plan can be realised. Their two programmes are called ‘Hear Me’ and ‘Jigsaw’. The former works towards changing attitudes to mental health; the latter provides community-wide care systems employing holistic care, and linking primary care to specialist care. The system will also receive constant input from young people themselves, reversing the trend of indifference that has characterised the health system’s attitude to young people.
There’s one catch, though. In order for the project to work, people have to get their heads around the idea of mental health, and get used to the idea of taking care of it. We need to understand that mental health isn’t a measure of how foible-free you are, but the foundation of your contentment in life; that mental illness isn’t a ball-and-chain to be broken off, but a reality to be grappled with and lived with. We have to understand that mental health isn’t a reality a million miles from ourselves, because it’s a fundamental part of who we are.

To get members of Headstrong to talk in your area, or for more information on their work, visit www.headstrong.ie.