UN: Money no excuse for failed mental health plan

MONEY should not be an issue when it comes delivering mental health services for people who are still marginalised and stigmatised in Irish society, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health has said.

Anand Grover yesterday told the conference of the Irish Mental Health Coalition that while the Government’s A Vision for Change document on mental health, published in 2006, was an “excellent” and “radical” document, it had not been implemented.

Mr Grover said he could not understand why money would prevent the Government delivering on the document, as the shift from mental health institutions to community care would mean significant amounts of capital should be available to reinvest in the services.

“I don’t think money is really an issue, but if so they have to make it available because this is a right for people,” he said, adding that he hoped a plan of action could be ‘chalked out’ to implement the Vision for Change document.

Mr Grover was one of the keynote speakers at the conference, where the key focus was to discuss how international human rights law can and should inform legislation in Ireland.

John Saunders, chair of the IMHC, said current mental health services in Ireland were simply “not good enough”.

“Earlier this month, the HSE published a second inadequate action plan to implement A Vision for Change,” he said.

“It was yet another missed opportunity by Government to bring the policy to life and so improve the quality of life of thousands of people experiencing mental health problems across the country.”

Meanwhile, the Irish College of Psychiatry has published a report, A Gloomy View, warning that reforms in our mental health services will not exist for another 40 years because of the Government’s ongoing failure to adequately fund the service.

According to the report: “Developments [in the service] were piecemeal with no sense of any concerted and coordinated effort.

“Unfortunately, during the time period under study, there were also posts suppressed and lost within the mental health services. These posts were lost, not through service planning, but rather as result of the public service staffing embargo and the axing of unfilled posts that happened to be vacant.”