Fewer than one in five psychiatrists in public practice can offer a full service to their patients one year after taking up their posts, research to be published today will show.
The survey of newly-appointed consultant psychiatrists, carried out by the Irish Psychiatric Association (IPA), found that just 18 per cent of them could access a social worker, a psychologist or an occupational therapist one year after they had set up a service.
These paramedics are considered essential for the provision of multi-disciplinary care to people with psychological illness.
In addition, the research found that 40 per cent of psychiatrists in the Republic had no office, no junior medical staff or no secretarial back-up one year after commencing work.
The results of the survey will be presented at the annual meeting of the IPA in Dublin today by Dr Aisling Denihan, consultant in old age psychiatry for Co Meath.
The survey covered 138 consultant psychiatrists who took up their posts in the last six years, 80 per cent of whom participated in the study. "The replies highlight the sense of frustration and disillusionment felt by many newly-appointed consultants," Dr Denihan said.
A typical experience of a new appointee was to meet an administrator on their first day at work who would then hunt around to look for office space for the consultant.
She said it was not unusual for a doctor to have to wait nine months before they could begin to accept referrals from general practitioners. "This is despite an average lead in time of 5.2 months from appointment to commencement - time for the health boards to prepare to resource us."
The co-author of the research, Dr Eamon Moloney, chairman of the IPA and clinical director of South Lee Mental Health Services in Cork, will tell the conference of the extent of frustration among psychiatrists at the barriers they encounter in trying to provide a quality service to patients.
"New appointees are full of enthusiasm, want to implement change and provide the best service they can, but they need support to do this," he told The Irish Times. Some 62 per cent of survey respondents said they were not being adequately supported by management.
Meanwhile, separate research, to be presented to today's meeting, will show that there has been a 56 per cent increase in the number of administrative staff in adult mental health services in the State between 1998 and 2003, but only a 44 per cent increase in the number of paramedical staff such as psychologists and therapists during the same period.