This week’s budget announcements had some positive aspects, especially for the health sector and in particular, the Government’s U-turn on the allocation for mental health services. Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD announced the Health Service Executive (HSE) would benefit from the bulk of an additional €500m and a further €40m would go towards Garda overtime.

I have spoken ad nauseam on the latter and the shortfall of Garda numbers here in Co Kildare. Hopefully, some of that overtime budget will benefit South Kildare.

Returning to the monies allocated for the Department of Health and more specifically, the HSE, which has already over-spent its budget this year by €150m. If the remainder is to be used to reduce the overcrowding in our A&E departments, to prevent the elderly remaining on trolleys in hospital corridors, or to increase the hours of home-help carers, then it will be money well spent.

Earlier this year, I was outraged when former Minster for Health, Leo Varadkar TD indicated €12m would be peeled back from mental health allocation. Outrageous when we in Co Kildare already had the lowest spend nationally in mental health supports yet we have one of the youngest population profiles in Ireland.

The restoration of that funding therefore is welcome. Nonetheless, it is still well below what we need for a sustainable, accessible mental health service. I was appalled as I drove to work this week to hear persons on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland describe their experience of our ‘health’ services.

One lady described how she frequently attends A&E when she is experiencing a self-harm conflict or suicidal tendencies. Having waited hours in A&E, she consistently leaves without being seen by a consultant and simply goes to her local garda station, where she ‘can feel safe’.

How sad is that? Would you expect a person with a broken limb or organ failure to present themselves to a counsellor or a psychiatric unit and then hobble their way to a garda station and hope the pain/issue disappears?

Mental health care needs specifically trained and designated nursing staff and doctors to attend to patients presenting with self-harm tendencies. Have we learnt nothing from all the national and international reports over the years?

A most recent EU study showed Ireland recorded one of the highest mortality rates due to drugs overdose in Europe and way higher than the European average. Co Kildare experienced 25 deaths by suicide in 2014; 24 young men and 1 woman and March this year was a particularly sad month for families in the Newbridge and surrounding areas.

Without the ongoing work of organisations such as Kildare Youth Theatre (KYT), Hope D, Console, The Samaritans and Pieta House, I believe those figures might have been even higher.

Mental health encompasses living with depression or a psychiatric condition, eating disorder or low esteem due to societal or childhood experiences, bullying in school, etc. Add to that, more people experiencing intimidation based on sexual orientation, racism, intellectual or physical special needs or poverty stigmatisation – and you have a pool of the most vulnerable in society reaching out to a service that doesn’t exist.

As FF Spokesperson on Equality, Integration and Immigration, I believe equality means equal access for everybody to a health service, and that entails consultants and specialists working within the mental health sector. I welcome the U-turn in yesterday’s budget announcement but I believe much more is needed specifically to address the shortfall in mental health supports.

The answer, and I will post further details on this, is to have specifically designated emergency services located at psychiatric units within the general hospital service. A&E Departments are currently under pressure to cope with the demand of what are largely physical injuries,  broken limbs, organ problems, etc.

A separate emergency service with staff qualified to deal with mental health conditions and issues is what me aspire to.

Mental illness is a silent disease and too many are left to suffer alone and in silence.

HOPE (D ) Freephone 1800 855 834 for confidential support services.