Fears for implementation of report on mental health and addiction in justice system
[ad_1]
Kathleen Lynch said that while she believed the Department of Justice and the Department of Health were “committed” to implementation, the issue had to compete for space amid daily or weekly crises in both departments.
The former Labour TD for Cork North Central said the Government had welcomed the report of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on mental health, addiction, and the criminal justice system, published last September.
The 230-page report was split into three areas: Preventing and diverting people with mental health and addiction from entering the justice system; providing them with proper treatment when incarcerated in prison or the Central Mental Hospital; and providing the necessary services on release and in the community.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the School of Law in UCC, Ms Lynch, the task force chair, said this was “a whole-of-society issue”.
The former minister of state for mental health said: “It is in our interest that we don’t have people falling into criminality because of services that haven’t been provided.”
Fiona Donson of UCC School of Law said there were a “lot of questions” around implementation and resources.
Director of the Probation Service Mark Wilson and Chief Superintendent Gerry Roche, who chaired two of three task force sub-groups, accepted these were issues.
Chief Supt Roche said the HSE was in a “state of flux all the time” with various issues, and that An Garda Síochána was “no different”.
Ms Lynch said implementation was discussed in the task force.
“We would have the same worries about implementation that other people have. That is not to say that the Department of Justice or the Department of Health are not committed to implementing this — we believe they are.
“But, as Gerry [Roche] rightly says, there’s a crisis in the Department of Health every day. I’ve been there, I know.
She said while the task force did not make recommendations on implementation or resources, it did set timelines of 12-18 months, two and a half years, and five years, which she said most people thought were “very, very tight”.
The task force also recommended a dedicated office, with the sole aim of driving the recommendations.
She said everyone they engaged with wanted all the various services to work together, collaboratively.
“That’s not as easy as you would think,” she said. “There are cultural issues. There are territorial issues. There are budgetary issues.”
Mr Wilson said that while this year’s mental health budget, at €1.3bn, was the highest ever, it represented just 5% of the HSE’s total budget, when the World Health Organization recommended mental health should be 12% of the total health budget.
He also said a major issue for the HSE was trying to hire staff, a problem shared by the Prison Service and the Probation Service.
“We have a real problem as to how we’re going to build up capacity,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link
