Psychiatric care: Locating the new Central Mental Hospital beside the new prison complex in north Dublin is not ideal, the Minister of State with special responsibility for mental health services has admitted.
Tim O'Malley was responding to criticism that locating a psychiatric hospital beside a prison was something those engaged in mental health services had been hoping to move away from, because of the adverse associations it could entail.
Mr O'Malley, who will be driving the Government's radical overhaul of mental health services announced last week, said the two buildings would be completely separate, with separate entrances and staff.
"I accept that in an ideal world it would be better to not have it [ the psychiatric hospital] near a prison, but we don't live in an ideal world."
He said only a very small number of people had objected to its new location. "If it is a state-of-the-art building, which it will be, it does not matter where it is located," he said.
He said when he got the portfolio in 2002, one of his first decisions was to seek the Central Mental Hospital's closure.
"It is absolutely Dickensian and a disgrace for people to have to live in," he said.
Mr O'Malley maintained that the fact that the hospital would be built on lands beside the proposed new prison at Thornton Hall, St Margaret's, north Dublin - to replace Mountjoy Prison - would actually expedite the development.
Mr O'Malley said that "whether we like it or not, the vast majority of people who attend the Central Mental Hospital come from prisons."
He said that from a security and economic viewpoint, putting them together made sense.
However, he said the Department of Justice would also have a role to play in the mental health area. It was recognised that many people who got into trouble with the law had mental problems.
He said provision would be made for such people who got into trouble but had mental problems, to be diverted from the prison system to the mental health services, where appropriate.
Mr O'Malley said the Government expected to decide shortly on how to proceed with the new hospital. He said it was still considering what the fastest way of building it would be - through direct funding or a public private partnership.
The Limerick PD deputy who is Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children said the Central Mental Hospital will be sold along with approximately 15 other psychiatric hospitals.
Mr O'Malley said the closures would take place on a phased basis and the requisite mental health services elsewhere would be in place beforehand. He said he wanted to assure the relatives, especially of long-stay psychiatric patients, that he would not suddenly close anywhere, leaving patients with nowhere to go.
Mr O'Malley said he would shortly announce a committee which would oversee the implementation of the A Vision for Change report, published last week. It will report on what progress is being made twice a year.
The report, drawn up by an expert panel, will entail closing all psychiatric hospitals and moving mental health services into the community. It is estimated that one in four people will have mental health problems at some stage in their lives.
The monies raised by the sell-offs will be ringfenced for mental health services which will concentrate on community-based multidisciplinary mental health teams.