HSE in €50m mental health standards drive

AN additional €50 million will be spent by the Health Service Executive (HSE) this year on achieving new standards of mental care published yesterday by the Mental Health Commission.

The new standards, set out in the Commission’s Quality Framework for Mental Health Services in Ireland, will mean that everyone will know what to expect from a mental health service.

The HSE, who welcomed the framework, pointed out that more than €790m would be invested in capital infrastructure in the mental health sector over the coming years.

The framework was compiled by the commission after consulting widely with service users, providers, professionals and other interested parties, in 2005, and published last year. It also examined quality frameworks in other countries.

The commission’s director of standards and quality assurance, Patricia Gilheaney, said the framework contained standards that must be addressed by all mental health services, irrespective of where they are delivered.

“It is not aspirational. It is an actual working document that will be implemented,” she stressed.

The commission said it wanted to see a start made on the implementation of 14 of the 24 standards this year, and planned to meet with the HSE and independent providers —over the next few weeks — to agree on a timeframe for the incorporation of all of standards into service level agreements.

Ms Gilheaney pointed out that all of the standards were linked in with the Government’s 10-year policy on mental health — a Vision for Change.

She believed the commission now had an ideal opportunity to use the framework to drive quality improvement.

“We have new mental health legislation; we have a new national policy in relation to mental health and we now have a quality framework that knits all of those components together,” she said.

Sandra Hogan of Aware, a support group for people with depression, welcomed the framework. Ms Hogan said it was crucial that the framework was embraced by all involved in the service as quality in mental health services was long overdue.