Increased level of staffing in mental health services is urgently needed.
That's according to the CEO of Mental Health Reform as the organisation is calling for an 85 million euro investment in this year's Budget.
Mental Health Reform represents 77 organisations in Ireland including Pieta House South East, Samaritans and Shine.
The call for investment in Budget 2022 is to address the long term mental health impact caused by the pandemic.
Over 560 thousand calls and emails were answered by Samaritans volunteers in 2020, with the national coalition for mental health saying serious gaps in the sector were exposed by the pandemic.
Speaking to Beat News, Fiona Coyle, CEO of Mental Health Reform explained which areas of the sector need improving:
"We need to see increased of staffing across the services, investment in mental health in primary care, we need to expand the child and adolescent mental health service an we also need to invest in the community and voluntary sector. Organisations like the Samaritans and Shine provide such vital services.
