This article is from page 16 of the 2012-03-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
JUST one nurse has been provided to the Clare Mental Health Services under the € 35 million ringfenced in the budget for development of community mental health services.
According to a Clare member of the HSE West Forum, the money that was earmarked for recruitment within the under-resourced service has provided just one staff nurse to the child and adolescence psychiatric service in the county.
Cllr Tom McNamara (FF) has called for more services in Clare to be supported from the funding.
Minister of State, with responsibility for Disability, Older People, Equality and Mental Health, Kathleen Lynch said the funding would primarily be used to strengthen community mental health teams in both adult and children’s mental health services.
Over 400 additional staff are to be recruited to support initiatives under this package. It is intended that the additional resources will be rolled out in conjunction with the scheme of appropriate clinical care programmes currently being developed.
It is understood that the € 35 million is to be released over three years.
Cllr McNamara said that he was disappointed to learn that to date just one appointment has been made in Clare under the scheme.