Eva Short | Contributing Writer
Squeezed between the SU stand and a society handing out pizza slices to eager recipients, it may have been difficult to see Barbara Barrett and the petition she was holding. Thankfully it seems she was seen, as Barbara, on behalf of Mental Health Reform Ireland, collected over 1,000 signatures while based at Trinity for a petition dubbed Do What Works.
Do What Works is a petition that implores the government to make good on promises made in the two previous Budgets to allocate €35 million to mental health services in Ireland. Furthermore, the petition asks that the money be spent on community-based services, services that they feel would best meet the needs of people availing of the HSE public mental health service in this country. Newly appointed director Dr Shari McDaid, has said, “We know what works for mental health. We need to have mental health services based in the community, with a range of multidisciplinary staff who offer a range of treatment options.”
The €35 million was one of many promises made by the previous government in the 2006 document ‘A Vision for Change’.
The document details plans by the HSE to completely overhaul the mental health services in Ireland. It includes an emphasis on multidisciplinary services as well as a bid to promote awareness of mental health issues and prevention. Historically, Ireland has not been seen to allocate much of its health budget towards mental health in comparison to other countries. A 2008 WHO Europe report shows Ireland spending just 7.7% of its health budget on mental health services, in comparison to the UK and Wales where expenditure is almost double, at 13.8%. Mental Health Reform, in its mission statement, has said that they are working to ensure that the promises made in ‘A Vision for Change’ are kept, and all conditions met before 2016.
“We know what works for mental health. We need to have mental health services based in the community, with a range of multidisciplinary staff who offer a range of treatment options”
The petition itself is running for eight weeks and was launched on August 19th of this year. Since that time, as of 26th September, the conglomerate lobbyist group, who work with Amnesty Ireland and Console among other organisations, have gathered 17,000 signatures across the country. In particular, Mental Health Reform has been hosting the petition at a number of campuses as well as our own, such as NUI Maynooth, UCD and DIT. They were stationed outside Croke Park in the lead up to the Mayo-Dublin All Ireland Final, and their most recent venture sees them Donegal bound to talk to farmers with the Social Farming Across Borders project. Their fiercely enthusiastic campaigning, as well as a strong online presence, inspires confidence that they will gain plenty more names in the lead up to their October 15th deadline, the day of the Budget.
For anyone who missed an opportunity to contribute to this cause while Mental Health Reform were at Trinity, the petition can be accessed online at mentalhealthreform.ie/petition2013.
