Mental health body delay criticised

THE delay in establishing tribunals to examine if psychiatric patients detained against their will are fit for release has been criticised by the former inspector of mental hospitals.

Dr Dermot Walsh described the failure to set up the tribunal system as "fairly worrying".

The tribunals, legislated for in the Mental Health Act, 2001, have the power to order the release of a patient detained involuntarily. However, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has advised its consultant psychiatrist members not to take part in the tribunals because of tight time-frames in which to carry out their work.

Dr Walsh said there didn't appear to be a resolution to the impasse and that the legislation had stalled.

"I would have thought this was a fairly worrying matter," he said.

Last week, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney blamed the consultants for the delay in setting up the tribunals just 30 have applied to take part out of a required 60 but IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said psychiatrists are not adequately resourced to meet the demands of the tribunals.

Next Friday, a conference on mental health will hear former psychiatric in-patients complain of over-use of medication and the use of Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT), a treatment which sends an electric current through the brain in an effort to lift depression.

Dr Walsh said over-reliance on medication to treat psychiatric patients was a common concern among patients' relatives. He said a Government-appointed expert group on mental health policy had heard, during a series of consultations with clients around the country, that one of their biggest concerns was exclusive use of medication to treat psychiatric patients.

"A recurring theme is that the use of medication seemed to be in certain instances used instead of what we call 'talking therapies'," Dr Walsh said. Talking therapies include cognitive behavioural therapy, counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, self-help groups and occupational therapy.

In relation to ECT, Dr Walsh said the general view was that it was useful "when depression is extremely severe and there is a high suicide risk and everything else has failed." He said some patients seemed to show a dramatic improvement following ECT treatment, but that it was difficult to know who would respond to it and who wouldn't.

Last year, a study of mental health services in Galway recommended further research into ECT to justify its use in psychiatric hospitals. Feedback from patients prescribed the treatment found 67% of those who agreed to ECT felt pressured into having it, 43% said they did not experience any long-term benefits and 57% said they had suffered side effects, including headaches, memory loss, grogginess, loss of sensory perceptions and brain damage.

More recently, figures from the Health Research Board showed wide variation between health boards in the use of ECT. The Mental Health Commission called for an investigation into the disparities.

Next Friday's conference, Dignity A Step to Recovery in Mental Illness, will be held in University College Cork.