MENTAL HEALTH inspectors have expressed concern at the high use of sedatives in psychiatric hospitals and called for a review of drug use in about a third of the centres.
They have also strongly criticised the State’s failure to close several dilapidated mental health facilities, which are unfit for habitation. In some cases funding problems are causing delays to new facilities forcing older facilities to remain open, say inspectors.
Inspection reports published yesterday by the Mental Health Commission, call for the closure of psychiatric facilities and units at: St Finan’s, Killarney; St Fintan’s hospital, Portlaoise; St Loman’s hospital in Mullingar; and St Ita’s hospital in north County Dublin.
The report says St Finan’s is not suitable for the care and treatment of residents and criticises cramped conditions that force residents to sleep in “rows of beds in long dormitories with no privacy, inadequate washing and toilet facilities and stark surroundings”.
Plans by Kerry Mental Health Services to build new units have not gone ahead, say inspectors.
“It can only be described as frustrating that there has been no advance, in any shape or form, with any of these developments due to the lack of capital funding,” says the report on St Finan’s.
The inspectors conclude St Ita’s hospital should close immediately as conditions for elderly patients were “particularly disgraceful”.
“It was unacceptable that older residents continued to live their lives in such an impoverished physical environment, with limited privacy, and restricted access to a safe and appropriate outdoor space,” according to their report.
Inspectors found St Fintan’s hospital in Portlaoise was unsuitable to provide care and expressed surprise that admissions were continuing despite past commitments by the HSE to close the hospital.
“Walls and roofs leaked during bad weather. A shortage of multidisciplinary team members compounded the difficulties experienced by staff in the delivery of care,” reported the inspectors.
Inspectors renewed calls for the closure of St Ita’s hospital in north County Dublin. “The conditions of this hospital were extremely poor . . . dormitory accommodation redolent of an institutional warehousing era,” said the report.
Nine of the 26 inspection reports published yesterday on approved mental health centres expressed concern about the high use of sedation on patients or called for a review. This follows similar concerns expressed following 22 inspection reports on hospitals published last year.
In one case – Newcastle hospital in Wicklow – 88 per cent of patients were prescribed sedatives, known as benzodiazepines, and 65 per cent of residents were prescribed night sedation.
Benzodiazepines are prescription drugs used to treat conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and seizures. While they are considered safe for short-term use, the risk of overuse, abuse and dependence has been well documented.
High rates of prescription drugs were also noted at St Aloysius, the Mater hospital (73 per cent); St Canice’s, Kilkenny (77 per cent); Lakeview unit, Naas (61 per cent); St Brendan’s hospital (72 per cent); St Ita’s hospital (64 per cent); Midwestern Regional Hospital, Limerick (66 per cent); St Brigid’s, Ballinasloe (52 per cent acute patients/73 per cent long stay patients); and Elm Mount St Vincent’s hospital (50 per cent).