TWO OF the State’s ageing psychiatric hospitals will be closed each year under the Government’s plan to develop community mental healthcare services, Minister of State for Mental Health John Moloney has pledged.
Mr Moloney said he expected to name by April two of the hospitals set for closure this year, resulting in the relocation of patients to more suitable community facilities. He said the HSE had also agreed to ringfence monies raised from the sale of lands around psychiatric hospitals for the development of community mental health services.
Some €42 million from the sale of four properties has already been set aside by the HSE for mental health, Mr Moloney said yesterday. Those funds, however, do not represent additional funding over and above what has already been committed to mental health services.
The Minister was marking the third anniversary of the publication of the A Vision for Change plan to reform mental health services with the admission that progress to date had been slow.
A number of psychiatric institutions have already been closed and patients have been transferred to alternative accommodation. But some 1,485 people remained in inappropriate accommodation at psychiatric hospitals in the State as at the end of September 2008.
Closure plans have been developed for nine hospitals in the HSE South area and for four in the Dublin-Northeast area.
In Dublin-Mid Leinster, plans are being considered to close St Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar and Newcastle hospital, Co Wicklow.
In the HSE West, many of the large psychiatric hospitals have already been closed and patients transferred to alternative accommodation.
A closure plan for St Brigid’s Hospital in Galway has also been signed off.
Mr Moloney said yesterday the admission of teenagers to adult psychiatric hospitals would be stopped by the end of 2010 with the opening of new beds in Cork, Galway and Dublin.
On the question of the possible appointment of a national director of mental health, as recommended in A Vision for Changethree years ago, Mr Moloney said he was in favour of such an appointment and was trying to "firm up that commitment", but resources were "scarce".
Mr Moloney also announced that community mental healthcare teams would operate alongside primary health teams in 20 new primary care centres to be put in place by the HSE this year.
The HSE said a "comprehensive" implementation plan for A Vision for Changecovering 2009-2013 had been completed and key priorities for this year included the formation of new mental health catchment areas under the direction of a clinical director.
The Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC) welcomed the commitment to reinvest funds from the sale of psychiatric hospitals, but called on the Minister to provide additional details and to begin “real and urgent” reform of mental health services.
IMHC chairman John Saunders questioned whether the €42 million had already been transferred to the HSE and, if not, asked when that would happen.
The Mental Health Commission welcomed some progress on A Vision for Change, but said it remained disappointed at the slow progress of the implementation of the Government's policy in other areas.