Unskilled workers, divorcees top psychiatric admissions

UNSKILLED workers and divorcees are more likely to end up in psychiatric institutions, the latest statistics released on admissions will reveal today.

The Health Research Board (HRB) found of the 21,253 admissions last year, the highest rate per population types were the unskilled, the divorced and those aged 45 to 54.

Overall, numbers being admitted to psychiatric units and hospitals fell by 5% in 2005, which researchers said was keeping in line with patients living more in community care.

Dr Dermot Walsh, HRB’s principle investigator, said: “This has been happening for 40 years. People are better at home than in Victorian institutions,” he said.

There are now believed to be only 10 mental hospitals left in the State. In the 1990s, St Columba’s in Sligo, once housing 600 patients, was converted into a hotel while Our Lady’s Hospital in Cork, which had up to 2,000 residents, was turned into apartments.

The HRB reported there was still no decline in involuntary admissions which accounted for 11% or around 2,340 of numbers. This may change following the introduction of the Mental Health Act which allows for independent reviews of involuntary admissions, stressed Dr Walsh.

Men accounted for 51% of those admitted. Those aged 20-24 had the highest rate of first time admissions.

Depressive disorders accounted for 31% of all admissions, schizophrenia for 20%, alcoholic disorders for 14% and mania for 13%.

There were 62 admissions to children’s centres in 2005, 76% aged 14 to 16 years.

The report reveals you are 12 times more likely to be admitted with an alcohol related disorder if you are from Wicklow than Monaghan.

Furthermore, people from Kerry are six times more likely to be admitted to institutional care than those from Kilkenny.

There were 21,265 discharges and 229 deaths in psychiatric units in 2005.