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.

Given the changes, it is reckoned that existing psychiatric hospitals should be in a position to close in 2010.

The latest census carried out last March found more than half of those in mental hospitals (55%) were men and two-thirds of all patients were single. It also showed that single men were six times more likely to be hospitalised than married men.

Just under 20% of all patients were married; 7% were widowed and 1% were divorced. Psychiatric hospitals had 52% of all patients while general hospitals had 23%.

HRB principal investigator Dr Dermot Walsh said the census findings confirmed community-based services and psychiatric units in general hospitals would replace public mental health care in large isolated psychiatric hospitals.

He said the transformation was in line with national policy, as outlined in the Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy, A vision for change. The major Government report, published last January, estimated that €947 million will be required over the next seven years to develop mental health services, the bulk of which will be realised from the sale of 15 mental institutions.

The report recommended that the hospitals should be closed on a phased basis and any funds released as a result of this move reinvested in the mental health service.

Chair of the Mental Health Coalition and director of Schizophrenia Ireland, John Saunders, said he was concerned the figure could be reversed with the rise of new long-stay patients.

Earlier this year, the latest national review by the Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Teresa Carey, found that the number of new long-stay patients admitted to hospitals in 2005 had almost doubled.

There were 583 new long-stay patients reported last year, compared to 335 in 2004, an increase of 248.

Mr Saunders also said there was a need to ensure that patients in mental hospitals were placed in suitable alternative care.