ONLY 21 per cent of the State’s community mental health teams have the full range of expert staff they require to provide proper care, a new survey has found.
The survey by the HSE among its directors of services found just one in five of the teams had key staff with expertise in psychiatry, psychology, social work, nursing and occupational therapy.
This is despite a promise in a Government blueprint for modernising mental health services five years ago that all teams would have these staff at their disposal.
The HSE’s assistant national director for mental health, Martin Rogan, acknowledged the number of teams with all required staff was “quite low” and would have to be improved as more people were seeking help due to the recession.
However, he stressed the HSE was still only midway through the 10-year timeframe for implementing the Government's A Vision for Changepolicy. The survey found only 14 per cent of directors felt there were established services to identify mental health problems early among adults in their catchment areas, and 58 per cent said there were no agreed protocols for engaging with those at high risk of suicidal behaviour within mental health settings in their areas.
On the treatment of eating disorders, only 28 per cent of directors said their services could provide treatment and care for children.
The findings were presented at a seminar in Dublin to mark the fifth anniversary of the publication of A Vision for Change.
One-fifth of directors said older mental hospitals had closed in their areas since the document was published, and Mr Rogan said three more were due to be closed shortly.
St Ita’s in Portrane, Dublin; St Loman’s in Palmerstown, Dublin; and St Senan’s in Wexford are due to close next month, while St Luke’s in Tipperary is to close in June.
The Mental Health Commission last year said admissions to St Ita’s and St Senan’s should cease due to “inhumane” conditions.
Meanwhile, Dr Ian Daly, director of the HSE’s new national clinical programme for mental health, has acknowledged a lot of work needed to be done to improve services at a time when resources could be a challenge.
He noted that the percentage of the health budget spent on mental health in the Republic, at just over 5 per cent, was significantly less than that of the UK and the US, where mental health spending accounts for around 7.5 per cent of the health budget.
He said eating disorders were a “neglected area” but under his programme services for those with eating disorders would be set up in each of the HSE’s four regions.
He said a special effort would be made to cut suicide rates by closely following up those who presenting to emergency departments with self-harm, and a recovery office would be put in place in each mental health unit.
Separately, the College of Psychiatry of Ireland, in another report, highlighted the lack of progress in providing adequate and affordable care to those with an intellectual disability who require an additional specialised mental health service.
A Vision for Changerecommended the rollout of 39 teams dedicated to the mental healthcare of people with intellectual disability. Just two such teams have been developed, neither of which is fully staffed.
The college’s report also draws attention to the 55 Irish citizens with intellectual disability who are currently in facilities abroad, having been “exported” due to the chronic lack of suitable facilities.
Dr Siobhán Barry, one of the report’s authors, said placement of people with intellectual disability out of State was “an infringement of people’s rights”.