Psychiatric patients 'still endure' poor conditions

Patients in large psychiatric hospitals which are scheduled to close are continuing to endure poor conditions, the Inspector of Mental Services has said.

Dr Susan Finnerty said the inspectorate, which is responsible for the inspection of all mental health facilities on an annual basis, is "very concerned" about conditions within the hospitals.

Last year the Government announced plans to close 15 of the biggest psychiatric hospitals. The intention is to replace them with new acute units which will operate with a ratio of 50 beds for every 300,000 people.

The policy initiative was outlined in a A Vision for Change, which was adopted by Government two years ago and which places the emphasis for treatment of mental illness within the community.

The inspectorate, which has been operating for four years, has been highly critical of conditions in some long-stay psychiatric institutions in the past.

In its annual report last year, it stated that many of the inpatients have no homes and have been dislocated from their families and communities.

They are sometimes locked into their wards and are forced to live in institutional environments that are "drab, bare and in a small number of cases, dirty".

Dr Finnerty told the first annual conference of the Mental Health Commission that "by and large", conditions in the large psychiatric institutions had not improved over the last two years.

This had persisted despite concerns that were raised in inspectorate reports.

She added many patients were suffering because a great reluctance existed to invest in hospital services when the hospitals are scheduled to close.

"I feel that excuses about waiting for services to develop is not good enough. Wherever service-users are resident within the mental health services, they must have the same rights as everybody else and they must have decent services.

Dr Finnerty continued: "It is very important to realise that every person who uses mental health services is equal and it doesn't matter if you are attending a community mental health service or a day hospital or if you spent the last 20 years in a ward in a large psychiatric hospital.

"Your rights are exactly the same - that is the right to a clean, warm environment, the right to proper care and treatment and proper food are exactly the same."

Dr Michelle Funk, co-ordinator of mental health policy at the World Health Organisation said it was the organisation's policy that such large scale psychiatric institutions should be closed down.

"It is a problem that is prevalent in so many countries. As long as there are large-scale psychiatric units, there will be problems," she said.

"The treatment of mental health problems should be integrated into the general health system."