'Slow' mental health reform criticised

THE “PAINFULLY slow” progress being made in reforming mental health services three years after a blueprint for change was published…

THE “PAINFULLY slow” progress being made in reforming mental health services three years after a blueprint for change was published has been sharply criticised by the Irish Mental Health Coalition.

In a report out yesterday entitled Late for a Very Important Date, the coalition said: "The reform process has been painfully slow . . . despite statements of support for mental health reform from Government and the HSE, basic systems to promote reform are not in place, targets for service delivery have not been met, and development funding has all but ceased."

It noted that community mental health teams promised in A Vision for Changewere not fully staffed, increasing the likelihood of people having to be admitted to mental hospitals.

The numbers admitted to mental health units in 2007 was more than in 2006, and the number of children admitted to adult psychiatric facilities, which is considered highly inappropriate, increased in 2008.

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“Demands on services are likely to increase further in the year ahead. The established link between economic recession, financial pressures and mental health needs, make the case for reform and investment in mental health services more urgent,” the report added.

It said the Samaritans and Aware had both recorded increases in calls to their helpline services in the latter part of 2008.

“In times of social change and economic difficulty, mental health services are not a discretionary public service, but a vital and sometimes emergency public service,” the report continued, before stressing that investment in mental health services is money well spent.

The chair of the coalition, John Saunders, called called on the Government and the HSE to state precisely when the practice of admitting children to adult wards will end, explain why no directorate of mental health to oversee the reforms has been appointed, and to outline when an acceptable implementation plan for A Vision for Changewith timeframes and costings would be published.

It lays much of the blame at the door of the HSE. It says many targets it set in its 2008 service plan for improving mental health services are behind schedule, and expresses concern that “the urgent need for reform in mental health services is being delayed by HSE concerns to co-ordinate implementation with impending changes to institutional structures in the wider HSE”.

The coalition also warned that “the continued use of old hospitals represents a fundamental breach of international human rights obligations”.

The HSE said last night a comprehensive implementation plan for A Vision for Changeis at an advanced stage of preparation and will be presented to the HSE board in February. It also said it is its policy that children will not be admitted to adult units, and an additional 18 beds for children will be in place by the end of March.