THE STATE’S mental health watchdog has warned that up to 10 more psychiatric hospitals needed to improve standards significantly if they were to continue to admit new patients.
Yesterday the Mental Health Commission confirmed it had ordered three psychiatric hospitals to cease admitting new patients beginning later this year due to “inhumane” conditions.
The hospitals – St Brendan’s and St Ita’s in Dublin and St Senan’s in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford – have repeatedly failed to meet minimum care standards, according to the commission.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) will now be forced to find alternative accommodation for hundreds of in-patient admissions over the coming months. It is understood the HSE warned the commission in advance of yesterday’s announcement of serious consequences if acute units for these facilities were closed.
In a statement yesterday, the HSE said new services for these three hospitals were being prioritised with funding from the sale of mental health lands and assets.
The commission is also in contact with 10 other hospitals over their failure to comply with regulations and care standards. Mostly they include older psychiatric facilities which date back to at least the Victorian era.
Overall, the commission’s annual report, published yesterday, noted that there had been very little improvement in standards for psychiatric facilities.
The commission’s chief executive Hugh Kane said that while there were pockets of good practice, progress towards a modern service was “painfully slow”.
“We are concerned that the HSE’s service plan for 2010 does not show that it will be possible to develop the new services that will replace institutional care within the resources provided,” he said.
While demand for mental health services was likely to grow as a result of the economic downturn, Mr Kane said it was difficult to see how even existing services could be maintained.
Last year about 700 staff left the mental health services as a result of people reaching retirement age, while spending on services reduced by €53 million – despite official pledges to increase it by €21 million.
“We cannot see any steps in this plan to reconfigure services towards a community/recovery-focused service,” Mr Kane added.
The report of the Inspector for Mental Health Services, also published yesterday, raised concerns in relation to the ongoing admission of children into adult units.
There were a total of 200 admissions of children into adult units last year, despite evidence that the practice was “inexcusable and counter-therapeutic”.
In addition, the inspector, Dr Pat Devitt, said children with social problems rather than mental health problems were, in some cases, taking up scarce child and adolescent beds.
On the continued use of Victorian-era facilities, he said the fact that vulnerable people continued to reside in old, dilapidated buildings was “deplorable”. He said while a key ingredient in the concept of recovery was hope, admission to some units was “more akin to the abandonment of hope as described by Italian poet Dante.”
The HSE said patients in some of these settings would soon be accommodated in state-of-the-art accommodation, with single rooms and en-suite facilities. It did not say when they would be completed.
Minister of State with responsibility for mental health John Moloney yesterday acknowledged the report’s criticisms, but said he was pleased to see positive developments such as a greater emphasis on care planning and greater involvement of service users in their care.
The Irish Mental Health Coalition, an umbrella group representing almost 30 organisations, said the report was a “chilling indictment” of our mental health services. Orla Barry, the coalition’s spokeswoman, said services were at “crisis point”. She said the HSE was clearly not delivering on its promises.