FURTHER CUTS to mental health services will undermine much of the progress made in recent years in moving towards a more modern service, according to the chief executive of the Mental Health Commission.
Hugh Kane, who heads up the State’s watchdog for standards in mental health services, said the Government’s 10-year plan to modernise services was already in danger of being derailed.
“If you cut the mental health budget much further, it would be a very risky and potentially dangerous step.
“Services have already been cut to the bare minimum in some cases. How much lower can you really go?” he asked.
“For the past seven or eight years it’s been a case of chasing money, staff moratoriums. It’s time now to protect what we have and build from there.”
Investment in mental health services as a proportion of the overall health budget has fallen to about 5.6 per cent, well below the 8 per cent target set out in the national strategy, A Vision for Change. In addition, about 700 staff retired or left the sector last year and have not been replaced.
Despite pressure on the mental health budget, Mr Kane said there had been significant progress in some parts of the country where there had been a greater focus on developing community- based services.
In particular, he said west Dublin, east Galway and Cavan-Monaghan had been able to significantly reduce the number of people in need of hospitalisation as a result of expanding reach-out services in the community.
“These parts of the country have made great progress in moving resources toward the community, whereas others haven’t. There are leaders locally who are driving change.
“We need to reward that kind of leadership and penalise, if necessary, those who are holding onto big blocks of beds,” he said.
More work is needed in developing community-based services. He pointed to New Zealand which has about 80 per cent of its mental health services in the community. In Ireland, the figure is closer to about 50 per cent.
“We’re reaching a critical stage now regarding the modernisation of services,” he said. “Instead of it falling off the agenda, we need to focus on the key pieces of work that need to be done. Failing to do so will just backfire, because of the pressure on people in the middle of the recession.”
Investing in services also makes financial sense, according to Mr Kane.
Research commissioned by the organisation in 2006 estimated that the cost of lost productivity and sick leave due to mental ill health was in the region of €3 billion a year.
Mr Kane also said the Croke Park partnership agreement would help pave the way for work-practice reform across the mental health sector.
