COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 08, 2012

MOTION NO.1

MOTION: Councillor C. King

Mayors Business

That this Council develops a smart phone app that maps mental health services within the County. This could be done using location services or could be based on the simpler format of the recently succesfully launched "Art Trax" app which would simply list and describe the services in each town of the County.

REPORT:

The Council is supportive of the proposal outlined in the Motion but at present the Council's IT Department Spatial Data Team do not currently have access to a dataset mapping Mental Health Services in the County.  Some service and contact information is available in the Childrens Services Frontline Directory (Mental Health Services start on Page 104).

The HSE has their services mapped but at present there is no category dedicated particularly to Mental Health Services.  The Spatial Data Team Manager has already held meetings with the Health Intelligence Unit about accessing and sharing their data.

The Art Trax  application was procured by the Council but at present it is only available for the iPhone format. The company who developed the app have agreed to work on an Android version of the app over the coming months.

Based on the cost of the Art Trax application it is estimated that the development of an app of this kind would be expected to be in the region of €3,000 plus annual maintenance costs of  €600. However before any instructions are issued it is considered prudent that the currently available Mental Health related mobile apps in the public domain are further investigated to determine whether any development work carried out to date by another organisation could be utilised or whether it is possible to develop the mapping function as an extension to any existing app(s).  In parallel with this technical work , the functionality of the app will be discussed with Mental Health Ireland and the Jigsaw Project with a view to maximising the potential of the proposed app and the mapping of mental health services in the County. It is likely that a partnership approach to this project will yield the best outcome in the shortest timeframe.