‘Zero tolerance’ with drug-using patients at Mater
Dr Patricia Casey said drug dealing is “a very regular problem” in the hospital, that has lead to increased security on the psychiatric ward.
Her comments come after patients at psychiatric units at Mayo General and the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Ennis lodged complaints with management about cannabis being openly smoked at the units. At Mayo General, a patient complained that cocaine was also being brought into the ward for use by patients.
Dr Casey said unprescribed drugs can play havoc with a person’s mental state: “There can be an interaction between the various drugs and this can make a depressed person more depressed and a psychotic person more psychotic.
“Often we see drugs like diazapene being brought in and passed around, drugs that are not prescribed for this particular person or persons. The people that we see coming in here are often people who have suicidal thoughts but if we find illicit drugs here, we discharge the person immediately. There is a zero tolerance approach and it doesn’t matter what kind of complaint the person has come in with.”
The Mater’s psychiatric wing once operated an open-door policy but now visitors have to be buzzed in by staff. Unannounced urine checks are also performed on patients, especially people with a history of drug abuse. As in Mayo General and the Regional in Ennis, staff often find out about drug use and drug dealing from other patients.
The Mental Health Commission said it recently received an anonymous complaint about drug usage in a particular unit. It passed on the complaint to the Mental Health Inspectorate. “The policies and practices of inpatient units in relation to dealing with substance abuse are decided upon and implemented by the service providers themselves and not by the commission,” a spokeswoman added.
Brian Howard of Mental Health Ireland said it is “shocking to have class A drugs available in a place of care and especially when that place of care is a mental health environment”.
Last week, a Psychiatric Nurses’ Association branch officer at the Mid Western Regional in Ennis said he was aware patients had complained to hospital management about drug taking.
He said the policy was anyone found to be taking drugs was discharged but “that’s not as easy as that”, given the mental health difficulties of some patients.
The HSE West confirmed last week that Mayo Garda Drugs Unit visited the mental health unit at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar after complaints that cocaine and cannabis was being brought in by the public.
