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MENTAL HEALTH You are often seen as the Cinderella of health: the overlooked brother.
For many decades, the development of Ireland’s mental health system has been slow, lagging far behind the rest of the health service.
There has been a historical underinvestment in the system that has resulted in a slow development of some specific services, as well as an irregular provision throughout the country.
- (Read more here on how you can support a notable major project on the impact that lack of services, especially in regions without specialized teams, is having on people with eating disorders).
Year after year, mental health funding announced on Budget Day has failed to take into account some basic principles that are taken for granted in other areas of the health service.
No funding for rising costs
The cost of maintaining existing mental health services increases each year. This is not surprising: staff are on pay scales, different numbers of agency staff are required each year to fill vacancies, some services may have more clients some years than others.
However, before 2016, the government did not give money to recognize the increasing cost of “existing service levels” each year.
This money has had to come from somewhere and generally comes from so-called “development funds,” the money that is supposed to be used to develop new mental health services each year, according to the national policy of mental health.
Between 2012 and 2019, the HSE has said that nearly 20%, or € 50 million of the € 265 million, of the development funds reserved for the development of mental health services were used for this purpose, to fill the gaps in existing services that left the government without funding.
As a result, many services have been underdeveloped. Eating disorder services are a good example.
Eating disorders affect up to 5% of the population at some point in their lives, and anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of all mental health conditions. People can and do recover from eating disorders, but early intervention is a key factor for a sustained and lasting recovery.
With good quality services, eating disorders can be prevented and treated, allowing people to regain control over their lives and work toward their own personal recovery. According to Sláintecare, the goal of service development is to provide the right care, to the right patient, at the right time and at the right cost.
Budget allocated but not spent
In the case of eating disorder services, development money supports the implementation of new services across the country, including those in areas outside of Dublin and Cork where services have generally not been developed.
In 2018, € 1.5 million was allocated for the development of services for eating disorders in Ireland. However, according to the HSE, only € 137,000 of this money was spent.
The remaining approx. 1.4 million euros, according to the Ministry of Health, were used to prop up other areas of mental health services that the Government did not finance.
In 2019, an additional € 1.6 million was allocated to developing services for eating disorders.
This suggests that little or no new money was made available to the HSE for the development of eating disorder services in 2019.
In the 2020 Budget, the Government did not allocate new development funding to advance many areas of our much-needed mental health services, including eating disorder services.
Although the HSE said there were plans to move forward on a series of publications in 2020 for eating disorder services, they also recognized that these plans will likely be impacted by COVID-19.
There is a pattern of underinvestment in our mental health services: one step forward, two steps back.
Services must not be victims
While eating disorder services in Ireland are progressing, and it must be recognized that where these services exist they do an excellent job, the issue to be addressed is that services like these should and could have been much more advanced than they are if a sustained investment were made.
For many years, Ireland has faced a huge increase in demand for mental health services. More and more people are seeking help and support; We have encouraged them to do so!
However, when people show up, services need to be there to support them.
No news is bad news
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In the context of Covid-19, when people face levels of isolation, loneliness and distress rarely seen before, investing in mental health services has never been more important.
In the 2021 Budget, the Government must ensure that services such as those for people with eating disorders do not remain victims of a systemic failure to invest appropriately.
Fiona Coyle is the Executive Director of Mental Health Reform, Ireland’s leading national coalition on mental health.
If you need to speak to someone, please contact:
- Bodywhys 1890200444 or email [email protected] (eating disorders)
- Conscious 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
- Samaritans 116123 or email [email protected]
- Pieta House 1800 247 247 or email [email protected] (suicide, self harm)
- Teen-Line Ireland 1800833634 (for ages 13-18)
- Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)
QUIET TREATMENT Research
Want to know if the public health system is failing people with eating disorders?
Noteworthy’s team wants to do in-depth research on the progress of the national clinical program for eating disorders and what is causing delays in its implementation.
Here’s how to help support this proposition>
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