Mental hospitals ‘should close by 2010’

ALL existing public psychiatric hospitals should be closed by 2010, latest census figures from the Health Research Board (HRB) show.

The report shows the number of people living in psychiatric units and hospitals has fallen by 83% in the past 43 years. There were 19,801 people in mental hospitals in 1963, compared to just 3,389 this year.

A considerable increase in the percentage of patients in general hospital units over the last 25 years, rising from 3% in 1981 to 23% in 2006, discharges and death, along with an increase in the development of community care are responsible for the dramatic falloff.