Brendan Smith backs crisis resolution service roll-out
Brendan Smith urged expansion of crisis resolution service models of care for people in mental health crisis, citing an award-winning Sligo-Lietram example and pressing for a service in Cavan Monaghan. He said he raised a parliamentary question to the minister and welcomed responses from the minister and the HSE confirming the model is part of national policy and that Cavan Monaghan Mental Health Service supports developing services subject to resources.
Model praised
He described the Sligo-Lietram crisis resolution service as a working model that "won some award" and said practitioners and families praised its timely, appropriate interventions. Smith said family members had benefited from access to the service in a proper setting and that similar supports should be available elsewhere.
Parliamentary question and ministerial reply
Smith said he tabled a parliamentary question to the minister and reported the minister's reply that there is a range of supports as alternatives to emergency departments and a desire to "accelerate the pace of change." He noted the minister specifically included the crisis resolution services model of care and linked the model to national policy, citing "sharing the vision" and the earlier "vision for change."
HSE local response for Cavan Monaghan
Smith followed up with the HSE at local level and said the HSE replied that, subject to availability of resources, Cavan Monaghan Mental Health Service would be in favour of developing existing services in line with the crisis resolution service model of care to enhance services in Cavan and Monaghan.
Support and next steps
He described the petition as timely, welcomed the minister's and HSE's responses, and expressed support for rolling the model out to provide timely, brief, intensive supports for people in mental health distress. Smith concluded by expressing solidarity with his colleague's remarks at Cahirley and backing continued consideration of the proposal.
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Yeah, thank you very much, I agree, and I think it's a very, very important issue, as all of us know, particularly in our constituency work, and through knowing friends as well and families who have experienced particular difficulties, I have been made aware in my own constituency of a model of care that worked very well in Sligo-Lietram, and I think they won some award, a crisis resolution service model of care. And I had raised this issue with the HSE at local level in regard to getting such a service in my own area of Cavan Monaghan. Now, I had tabled a parliamentary question to Minister Jennifer Cairn O'Neill, and her response to me was that there has been a road out of a range of our supports for people experiencing mental health difficulties as alternatives to emergency departments, quite rightly, as our colleague Senator McCarthy said. The Minister then went on to state, I am keen to accelerate the pace of change so there are real alternatives to emergency departments and more appropriate treatment environments for people in mental health distress, and she very importantly said, this includes the crisis resolution services model of care. Now, I spoke to some of the practitioners and families who had family members who benefited from access to the service in Sligo-Lietram, and they were particularly praiseworthy of it. So, what the Minister said to me further was that the model of care for crisis resolution service was developed as a direct recommendation of sharing the vision, Ireland's national mental health policy, which is more than 20 years. Vision for change would be, yeah, and then that's the one that followed on from vision for change, so it's all part of the same, but it is 20 years, yeah, it's 21. It recognises the vision for change, for sharing the vision, recognises that people who are experiencing mental health crisis need specialist service to provide timely, brief, intensive supports to keep people safe. That's what we all want to see. There are some crisis resolution teams have been developed in a number of areas. My own particular concern was getting one in my own Cavan Monaghan area, and again, I followed this up with the HSE at local level, and they replied to me that subject to the availability of resources, Cavan Monaghan Mental Health Service will be in favour of developing the existing services in line with the crisis resolution service model of care to enhance the services provided within Cavan and Monaghan. So, it's a timely petition, and I think it's an issue that we should give some consideration to, and I welcome what Minister Karen O'Neill said to me in response to the parliamentary question, and also in what the HSE said to me. But we want this particular model, and I have been informed by people, again, as I said, whose families benefited from intervention in an appropriate and timely manner, in a proper setting as well, that hopefully that would be rolled out elsewhere, and that that type of support would be available to people who are going through a trauma or going through a very difficult time. So, I support what you said at Cahirley. Thank you.
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