SOME psychiatric patients have been rehabilitated for placed in the community which do not exist, according to the 1994 report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, published yesterday.
"Adequate rehabilitation, resocialisation and resettlement are not provided for a substantial number of long-stay patients," writes Dr Dermot Walsh. "In some services, although patients had been rehabilitated, the necessary community residential places were not available."
Dr Walsh was also critical of an absence of social workers, psychologists and occupational therapists in many health services throughout the State.
Other areas of concern raised by Dr Walsh include:
The reluctance of local psychiatric services to take back patients from the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum.
The relatively low quality of care in some health board psychiatric hospitals compared with private hospitals.
Physical conditions in St Brendan's Hospital, Dublin, and St Ita's Hospital, Portrane, Co Dublin.
The continuing delay in opening a psychiatric unit at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.
The absence of a code of practice on the provision of nursing cover during industrial disputes in psychiatric hospitals.