Anger at pace of mental health reform

MENTAL health patient and carer groups intend to express their anger at the Government’s slow progress in reforming mental health services at the polls.

Both the Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC) and the Irish Psychiatric Association (IPA) are disappointed that little action had been taken since the Government-backed Vision for Change strategy was launched in January last year.

The plan, which is one year old today, recommended establishing well-trained, fully staffed community-based multidisciplinary mental health teams that would offer home based and outreach services to people with mental health problems.

It also recommended closing down the 15 remaining psychiatric institutions and using the funds to build new community mental health centres and residential units for those with chronic mental illness.

And, with one in four of the population affected by mental health problems at some stage of their lives, the state of country’s mental health services is likely to become a powerful election issue.

IMHC chairman John Saunders said there was an urgent need for radical reform of the mental health services and they way they are managed and delivered.

“Progress in implementing the plan has been slow. The only exceptions are the formation of the monitoring group by the Minister of Health and Children, the implementation group by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the establishment of the national service user executive,” he said.

The IPA, which represents more than 60 psychiatrists will publish a report today detailing how little has been done.

The IPA’s spokesperson, Dr Siobhán Barry, said the embargo on public service recruitment had contributed considerably to the delay in employing staff for home-based services.

“We, together with service users and providers now demand urgent political and administrative action, or failing that, will seek electoral accountability,” Dr Barry warned.

Mr Saunders said people with mental health problems were currently receiving very similar services to those they got this time last year.

“Most of the changes have to do with changing the management structures for the delivery of services at local level,” he said.

He believed there was still a lot of resistance to change in the mental health service and the HSE had been slow to challenge it.