This motion is about real people in real crisis right now and a system that is failing them in plain sight. I will begin with the case of a woman from County Mayo who has been in an adult mental health unit since June of last year. She was admitted in acute distress but was otherwise physically well. Today after repeated incidents in what is meant to be a secure unit, she has suffered a choking episode, a broken hip and most recently a broken wrist requiring surgery. Her family now describe her as frail, traumatised, frightened to walk and deteriorating before their eyes. This is not good enough. When her brother sought answers and intervened to have her removed to a nursing home, he was told that there was nothing that could proceed without written consent from a woman who by every account is not mentally well enough to give informed consent. This is not patient-centred care. It is bureaucracy used as a shield while families are left desperate and unheard. At the very same time, a highly qualified psychiatric nurse born and raised in Mayo with ten years experience in the NHS wants to come back to work in Mayo but is being told that there are no jobs. In a county experiencing profound mental health distress, including the tragic loss of life to suicide, a highly skilled psychiatric nurse is being told she is not needed. We need to join up the dots. We cannot continue to funnel 50,000 people in mental health crisis into chaotic accident and emergency settings that are not fit for purpose. I have already spoken at length in this House about the shortage of ambulance services in the west and overcrowded emergency departments at our hospital. This is why this Sinn Féin motion matters.

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