Mental Health Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-22
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I want to touch on the trial that has been running over the past three years. We all know ICPOPs are a one-stop shop for elderly people where everything is looked at in relation to their physical health. I am of the opinion that mental health should also be included here. We have trialled in five different areas where the psychiatrist of older age is also involved. I also want to give a shout-out to the psychiatry of later life teams working across the country. In the past few months in my own family, I had reason to have to avail of one of these. It is good that the psychiatrist of later life actually comes to the house of an elderly person and they do not experience the trauma of having to present at the hospital, for example. The psychiatrist will come, spend an hour there and be given a full history. Then there is a follow-up every two weeks with the mental health nurse coming back tweaking medication. It is an area that we do not hear a lot about because it functions very well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-22