Topic: Suicide: Health Risk! Take action to protect mental health funding

With things changing so fast these days and the budget due next week you may think it's pointless or too late to urge the government not to cut mental health funding. But it's never too late to let your public representatives know that mental health is one area which will need increased, not reduced support during tough economic times. The 'Health Risk' campaign has been led by Amnesty International and the Irish Mental Health Coalition (80+ members made up of groups involved in mental health). If and when the government changes in 2011 and budgets are being looked at by the new government, I imagine that when they'll renew their campaign. You can understand their campaign by looking at these five facts:

The Government's 2006 mental health policy, A Vision for Change promised to end an over-reliance on hospital based care and a shift to comprehensive community based services. It still has not been implemented.
Funding - Since 2006 mental health spending has been reduced by 9.2%. Currently, just 5.3% of the overall health spend goes on mental health. This was 13% in 1986.
Over half of all HSE staff cuts last year were from mental health, despite it making up only 9 % of the health workforce.
The Inspector for Mental Health Services has described some facilities as "entirely unacceptable and inhumane". Spending cuts are already hitting the progressive, community services. In 2010, more than 1,000 people are still institutionalised in Victorian psychiatric hospitals.
In 2009 there were 200 admissions of young people to adult inpatient units; units specifically for young people are badly needed. Between December 2009 and June 2010 child and adolescent waiting lists increased by 14 per cent.

To find out more and to send an e-mail to your local TD's and the Taoiseach/ key ministers from www.healthrisk.ie or from the Amnesty website. Also of interest may be this 2010 report 'Hear my voice: Challenging prejudice and discrimination', commissed by Amnesty and undertaken by DCU School of Nursing.