Galway Bay FM Newsroom - The Regional Group of TDs are hitting out over the failure to include Mental Health and Clinical Nurse Specialists in the new covid 19 Advisory Group.
Half of the new team were also members of NPHET after the new body of 20 was confirmed on Friday night.
The group says excluding mental health, nursing and midwifery from an advisory panel that advises Government shows a detached approach to this pandemic.
A statement was released yesterday evening on behalf of the group by deputy Sean Canney.
It says..
"The Regional Group of TDs highlight that the new Covid-19 Advisory Group announced today excludes mental health, clinical nurse and paediatric specialists.
Regional Group members state, perhaps the stigma associated with mental health is not confined to society in general but extends to the very practice of medicine itself. How else can we explain the absence of a psychiatrist in this group?
Furthermore, not a single clinical nurse specialist is a member. For all our talk about the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to public health this is yet further evidence, if any more were needed, of the poor esteem in which we continue to hold our nursing profession.
Excluding mental health, nursing and midwifery from an advisory panel that advises Government shows a distant and detached approach to this pandemic and likely future pandemic, these exclusions ignore the reality of the situation in the physical and mental health services.
The pandemic had a profound impact on people; increasing social isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression and undermining the social and cultural supports that we all rely on. Referrals for mental health services significantly increased during the pandemic. The mental health system was not prepared to cope with the significant increase in demand experienced over the last few years.
We still do not know the full effects of Covid-19, but we know that Covid-19, long Covid and future pandemics will no doubt continue to impact the mental health of our population regardless of age.
Regional Group members back in December 2020 raised these issues during their mental health private members’ motion. But promises made to include the necessary experts from multiple disciplines are continuing to be ignored."
