Talks aim to avert mental health chaos

THE HSE and psychiatric nursing unions will meet at the Labour Relations Commission at midday in a last ditch attempt to avert chaos in mental health services.

Today’s discussions are set against a backdrop of an ever-growing number of closed and severely restricted psychiatric facilities in key parts of the country.

Unless agreement is reached today, the situation will deteriorate markedly on Monday when the country’s 7,000 Psychiatric Nurses Association and SIPTU psychiatric nurses escalate their action. From that point they will refuse to comply with all attempts by the Health Service Executive to redeploy staff from community to under-staffed acute facilities.