State must provide more mental health beds for young, says IMO

UP TO 1,300 young people will develop psychotic disorders this year, yet there are just 20 inpatient beds available to those who need hospitalisation.

Proposing a motion deploring the reduction of publicly-funded child and adolescent inpatients’ beds at the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) agm, consultant psychiatrist Dr Siobhán Barry said it was time for the Department of Health to follow the lead of the private sector.

“For instance, there is a new inpatient unit as St John of God’s in Dublin, a totally private facility, where the primary age group is 14 to 18, but they treat people as young as 12 and as old as 20. Clearly, that is a crucial age in terms of mental health development.”