Press release
Minister for Mental Health and Older People announces further increases on mental health and older persons funding in Budget 2022
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler TD, has announced another record year with further increases in both the mental health and older persons budgets for 2022.
A total of €1.149 billion has been allocated to mental health in Budget 2022. This is an additional €47 million for next year and comprises €24 million for new developments, €13 million for existing levels of service and €10 million in once off funding for COVID-19.
Minister Butler commented:
“The additional investment provided for in Budget 2022 will ensure the continued development of mental health services, including out of hours supports, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and the national clinical mental health programmes. An additional €1.15 million will be allocated to the Clinical Programme on Eating Disorders to continue the roll out of specialist eating disorder teams in CHOs 1, 3, 5 and 6."
New mental health services for older people will be developed, in line with the model of care for specialist mental health services for older people and will be piloted next year.
Minister Butler continued:
“Two new CAMHS telehubs will be funded under Budget 2022 and funding will also be allocated to enhance the capacity of CAMHS teams across the country. Crisis resolution teams will continue to be developed with an allocated budget of over €1.4 million in 2022."
An additional €10 million has been announced this week, as a once off funding measure to provide further investment in mental health services in 2021, with a particular emphasis on community and voluntary based supports.
A total of €2.33 billion has been allocated to older persons services in Budget 2022, including €30 million for new developments.
Minister Butler stated:
“There will a continued focus in Budget 2022 on enhancing community-based services to enable older people to continue living in their own homes, with dignity and independence, for as long as possible. The €150 million funding secured in 2021 for 5 million additional hours of home support has been maintained for 2022. Furthermore, the proportion of these new home support hours that will be ring-fenced for people with dementia will more than double from 5% in 2021 to 11% in 2022.
“An additional €7.3 million will allow for the further improvement of dementia services, including in the areas of memory assessment and support services, memory technology resource rooms, the implementation of the dementia registry and dementia audit within acute hospitals and the national intellectual disability memory service."
Minister Butler continued:
“€17.6 million will be allocated for the continued implementation of the recommendations of the COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel Report including, among others, the establishment of a permanent multi-disciplinary, enhanced Community Support Team in each CHO and the pilot of the Safe Staffing Framework for long-term residential care."
Minister Butler concluded:
“2022 will bring further enhancement of services and supports in both older persons and mental health, building on the unprecedented levels of funding in 2021.”