There is a need for state services to “focus on connectedness” and to “support community actions to strengthen social cohesion and reduce loneliness”.
This is one of the main recommendations made by the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Mental Health in its new interim report on Covid-19 and its effect on mental health services in the community.
The sub-committee report calls on the Department of Health to introduce emergency measures to meet “the current surge in need for mental health supports and services, including a fit-for-purpose suicide prevention 24-hour support team”.
The report also calls for a “retrospective review” of the mental health impact of Covid-19 restrictions on palliative care, end-of-life supports and funerals, “as evidence emerges of the suffering and longer-term effects on mental health that arise as a result of not being able to grieve properly”.
The publication of this report comes after Agriland‘s reporting on the need for the government to invest in mental health services in rural areas, and for community-based supports to be put in place.
The Department of Health confirmed to Agriland that currently, it does not yet “fully understand the impact of Covid-19 on mental health and any subsequent demand on services”, but that along with the HSE, it continues to plan “for any surge in demand as it rises”.
However, according to the sub-committee, there has been a significant surge in demand on services.
“The voices of people working on the ground at a local level in both urban and rural communities nationwide trying to meet that demand need to be heard and listened to, and their concerns regarding mental health support services need to be addressed,” senator Frances Black, chair of the sub-committee said.
“Mental health support services were always somewhat lacking but it is clear that urgent action is needed now more than ever to address that void. Long waiting lists to access care need to be urgently addressed.
“Free universal access to counselling is one way of removing barriers to people getting the appropriate help they need when they need it.”
Other recommendations made in the report include the need to ensure:
- State services develop a plan that ensures availability of and access to critical mental health services as a matter of priority;
- An increase in state funding supports, management and multidisciplinary planning for mental health services;
- State services focus on connectedness and to support community actions that strengthen social cohesion and reduce loneliness.
Young people in rural areas
As outlined in the report, in March of this year, representatives from Macra na Feirme told the sub-committee that Covid-19 was impacting their members “in a number of ways”.
Macra said it observed that “a lack of social interaction, loss of structure and routine” affected young people’s mental health.
Social interaction was further hampered by the “lack of connectivity to engage fully online due to poor rural broadband and also due to digital poverty”.
There was also an economic impact as young people were particularly affected by the loss of job opportunities, Macra added.
Meanwhile, in April, a sub-committee meeting with Family Resource Centres focused on the impact that Covid-19 had on the centres, as well as on the families and communities served by the programme.
Representatives from the Northside Family Resource Centre, the North West Clare Family Resource Centre and the Killinarden Family Resource Centre told the sub-committee that in both urban and rural areas, food poverty was a “significant issue for families with children from an early stage”.
“Children who would have received food supports through childcare, school and afterschool activities were at home full-time,” the report stated.
Those experiencing grief and loss also lost connections with their support networks due to restrictions, “complicating their grief and compounding their loneliness”.
The representatives also noted that those living alone spent “an unnatural amount of time by themselves, bringing about or worsening mental health issues, with an increase in people presenting with anxiety, paranoia, and depression”.
Migrant workers in meat factories
Also in April, the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) told the sub-committee that for many migrants, Covid-19 has “amplified inequality and social exclusion, and accentuated anxiety and isolation”.
“It has shone a light on the lack of rights for undocumented migrants, embedded exploitation in the experience of migrant workers, resulted in job losses for many, leading to precarious housing situations and putting people at risk of poverty and destitution,” the report said.
The MRCI drop-in centre saw a 50% increase in demand for services in 2020.
The centre worked with migrant workers in meat factories “and noted incidences of injury rates as high as 60% while observing there was significant bullying and harassment impacting on workers’ mental health”.
The sub-committee makes the recommendation that Ireland needs a mental health system that “recognises and addresses the social determines of mental health and risk factors associated with poverty, inequality and social exclusion, as well as the impact migration and poorly regulated sectors of the labour markets have on their workers and their families”.
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