Prioritise Mental Health
The World Health Organization warns: “Without adequate financing, mental health policies and plans remain in the realm of rhetoric and good intentions.”
While there have been considerable increases in health budgets in recent years, revenue funding of the mental health programme has not proceeded in step with other medical programmes. Ireland’s mental health expenditure has dropped from 13% in 1984 to just 7.3% of the national health budget in 2004. A further inequity is that, according to the Inspector of Mental Health Services, there is a six-fold difference in funding between different mental health services, and some of the most socioeconomically deprived urban areas are among the least well resourced. It has also been observed that regional budgets allocated to mental health services have been eroded in times of competing needs from other health sectors.
It is worth noting that a public survey published by Mental Health Ireland in 2005 found widespread public support for increased investment in services for those with mental illness - almost seven in ten members of the Irish public (69%) felt there are insufficient existing services for people with mental illness, and 97% disagreed that increased spending would be a waste of money.
The Irish Mental Health Coalition will lobby government to demand that mental health is given an adequate and equitable share in Budget 2007 and subsequent budgets. If mental health is to achieve parity, the Coalition believes that financial resources for mental health services should ultimately reach at least 12% of revenue health spend.
The Government’s programme for reforming the health services recognises that “significant demographic and social changes over the … are not reflected in the way in which resources have been allocated in the system” and promises that “funding will be determined in a manner that captures these changes in society”. The Irish Mental Health Coalition will call on government to ensure that this reform guarantees equity for mental health services, and that ring-fencing and other measures to protect mental health budgets at central and regional levels will be introduced.
The economic costs of mental health problems are considerable, and are estimated to be at least 3-4% of GNP across the EU member states. However, the largest cost occurs outside the health sector, such as through lost employment and absenteeism. Typically, these costs greatly exceed the relatively modest cost of providing preventive mental health services and supports. Additionally, taxpayers also absorb the cost of individuals’ needless dependence on public systems because they cannot, for lack of these supports, participate productively in the workforce. Clearly, it is in everyone’s interest to address underfunding in mental health services.
