Chrysalis

Here is a comment piece I wrote for today’s Cork Independent asking questions of our so called leaders and their commitment to the most vulnerable in our society –

When people ask ‘why did they cut the mental health budget again?’ and ‘why do they always target the most vulnerable in society?’ I always smile because the answer is simple. There are no votes in mental health. I have heard many a politician agree with and make this statement, most recently only last Thursday after a national radio debate.
It is disheartening to hear it repeated in 2012, to feel that our politicians are so blinded to the basic requirement of their roles, public service, that they have forgotten their compassion. Even worse they are continuing to breach the human rights of a vulnerable and ever increasing portion of our society.
The government policy for mental health is called ‘A Vision For Change’, it was intended as a roadmap for delivering better services in a different way to the current institutional based medical model of care. Part of this policy, and a major section of Kathleen Lynches brief is the provision of community based care and multi-disciplinary teams. This was due to be delivered this year with the ‘RING-FENCED’ €35 million Minister Lynch had assured us was in her ‘back pocket’.
Earlier this month we saw that pocket picked. Now Minister Lynch and her colleagues would have you believe this is not a cut as, to paraphrase, because the €35 million had not yet been spent then not ‘allocating’ it was not a cut. Confused, well so was I. Minister Lynch is claiming this is not a cut that her fund was not raided but instead it will not now be spent in 2012, clearer?
The line being spun by the government is that nothing has changed, the 414 roles required to further ‘Vision for Change’ will be, in Minister Lynches own words filled as soon as is ‘feasible’. Now to me ‘feasible’ is a very open ended time frame, and going on past experience of back pockets and ringed fences causes no little concern.
The talk around the corridors is that this is a simple accounting exercise, you delay filling the positions until December thus allowing the HSE to offset any pay requirements to 2013. This again shows where this, and successive, governments thinking is on those vulnerable citizens. We must remember this €130 million deficit is due to poor management of their budget by the HSE. This poor management has now meant that many people who may have benefitted from the multi-disciplinary approach to mental health care may now be lost to us.
It is not hysterical to say that unless we have a seismic shift in the ethos of our mental health care we will continue to see suicide numbers rise, over 700 expected this year, and many more that will be lost to institutions and emotional distress. It is time our politicians forgot about votes and remembered that they are there to lead.