Psychiatric funding at crisis level

PSYCHIATRIC patients in many areas of the country are receiving below par services because of large variations in regional funding, the Irish College of Psychiatrists (ICP) has said.

Some health boards have more than twice the budget allocation per head of population than others to spend on psychiatric services.

Both mental health lobby groups and the ICP which represents 400 psychiatrists nationwide said the situation was reaching breaking point and urgently needed to be addressed.

“We’re just not able to give what we could be giving to patients and their families. It’s quite frustrating,” said Dr Brendan Cassidy, honorary secretary of the Irish branch of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

National figures show that funding per head of population differs dramatically with urban areas faring worst.

In the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) region the allocation is 63 per person whereas the Western Health Board spends 156 per person.

Dr Cassidy said that compared to other areas of the health budget, money given to psychiatry has been consistently dropping.

Schizophrenia Ireland said funding for the mental health services had never been allocated on any kind of rational basis.

“I think that funding in mental health care has never been made on a rational basis.

“It was always a case of who shouted loudest got the money,” said John Saunders, the organisation’s director.

Most people in this field would agree that there is a variance in funding and more funding is needed to make up that balance,” he continued.

Mr Saunders said a damning report released last week showed how a lack of sufficient funding was having a negative effect on the treatment patients received.

That report found that a third of all those suffering from schizophrenia had never even been spoken to about their medication.

Dr Cassidy said the situation had become so bad that medical students were steering away from psychiatry because of associated stress levels and on-going difficulties due to a lack of funding.

“Junior doctors are not coming up through the ranks because they are getting frustrated and the numbers of consultants in psychiatry are half what they were four or five years ago.

“It’s become very apparent that this is about an absolute lack of funding and that’s really the problem,” said Dr Cassidy.

Dr Cassidy said that despite requests during this and the last health administration, the Minister for Health had refused to a meeting.