Mental Health Services.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 November 2006

Tuesday, 14 November 2006

Questions (236)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Question:

300 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Health and Children if she will arrange for research to be undertaken on the mental health of young people in areas with high incidence of joy-riding in view of the link between joy-riding and economic and resulting social disadvantage, physical environment and perceptions of public authorities established by a report published by UCD in October 2006 the nature and impact of joy-riding in Priorswood Report to the Priorswood Task Force on Joy-riding. [37878/06]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. T. O’Malley)

In "A Vision for Change", the report of the expert group on mental health policy published earlier this year, the mental health needs of troubled children and adolescents in community settings who come before the courts were considered and a number of recommendations made. The report recommends that this particular group of offenders should be catered for by their local community-based child and adolescent mental health teams. The report also recommends the provision of an additional community-based, child and adolescent forensic mental health team to provide specialist advice, consultation and liaison to generic services.

I have appointed a monitoring group to monitor progress on the implementation of the recommendations of "A Vision for Change". Implementation of the individual recommendations of "A Vision for Change" is a matter primarily for the HSE. The HSE recently established an implementation group to ensure that mental health services develop in a synchronised and consistent manner across the country.