Recession resulting in less sympathy for those battling mental illness

PEOPLE struggling with the recession have even less sympathy for sufferers battling with mental illness, according to the country’s leading mental health hospital.

St Patrick’s University Hospital in Dublin is worried the recession will make it even more difficult for people to admit they have a mental illness.

In advance of the launch of the hospital’s annual report today, its chief executive, Paul Gilligan said there was a concern people would delay even longer in coming forward for treatment because of the recession, resulting in higher incidences of unreported mental health problems.

“Unfortunately, many people do not accept that someone can experience mental ill health because of the recession,” he said.

“Mental health problems need to be acknowledged and people need to feel they can come forward, whether their illness is recession related or not, and say they need help,” he said.

And while the stigma associated with mental illness was recognised, not enough was being done to address it.

“The danger is that the deeply held biases we have about mental illness will become worse in a time when there is a lack of resources,” he said.

A study commissioned by the hospital last year found that six out of 10 people live with a mental illness for at least a year before getting help.

The main reasons for not discussing their mental illness was the stigma associated with it, lack of understanding of the condition and embarrassment.

And while the downturn was not completely to blame for an increase in the number of in-patients at St Patrick’s, it was a core factor, said Mr Gilligan.

He said it was unusual for the hospital to be working to capacity at this time of year but urged people with a mental health problem to still seek help.

Mental health problems were known to be affected by a number of core social factors and the recession has had a massive impact because it had come so quickly, he pointed out.

“It is too early into the recession to have solid research on it but, certainly we are noticing a huge increase in recession-related illness in this hospital,” he said.

In particular, there had been an increase in alcohol and addiction-related mental health problems.

The independent hospital recently established a number of appointment-based regional clinics in Dublin and Cork, now being used extensively and more are planned in regional centres.

St Patrick’s Hospital is campaigning to combat the stigmatisation of mental illness and to ensure that those suffering from metal illness are fully included in Irish society and their rights acknowledged.