Mental healthcare services are outdated, 13 agencies claim

The human rights of one person in four are being abused by the "outdated" mental healthcare services, 13 organisations working in the area have said.

Brought together by Amnesty International the groups, including Aware, the Irish Psychiatric Association, the Simon Communities of Ireland and Schizophrenia Ireland, are seeking "urgent consultation" with the Department of Health on the future of services for the mentally ill.

"The time has come for formal consultation on the planning of mental healthcare in Ireland if Government rhetoric is to correspond to reality," the organisations said in a joint statement.

Mr John Saunders, director of Schizophrenia Ireland, said Amnesty's initiative showed that the need for change in this sector was on the agenda of many organisations. Mental health services had received very little attention and had over the years been "tinkered with at the edges" but not altered dramatically.

There was a need to move away from the "medication model" of treating people with mental health problems to the "psycho-social model", with more use being made of social interventions, such as counselling and help getting back into employment. Ms Noeleen Hartigan of the Simon Communities said that for many of Simon's clients mental ill-health and homelessness were two sides of the same coin.

The Department, in its 2001 National Health strategy, said a "national policy framework" updating Planning for the Future would be prepared by the middle of this year. The expert group charged with preparing this updated strategy, however, has yet to be convened.

Mr Seán Love, director of Amnesty International, said one in four Irish people would be affected by mental ill-health at some stage in their lives.