Midlands site considered for mental hospital

A SITE in the Midlands is among those being considered as the location for the new Central Mental Hospital, the Minister for Mental Health John Moloney said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of a mental health campaign aimed at getting young people to speak about any problems they may be experiencing, Mr Moloney also said he hopes to have a new director charged with implementing the Government’s Vision for Change policies next week.

Government plans to move patients from the current Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum to the site of the new prison in Thornton Hall were dropped earlier this year, in a move which delighted the families of patients who were vehemently opposed to the move.

A spokesman for the CMH Carers Group, made up of families and friends of patients, said it was not aware of any plans for a site outside of Dublin.

The group stressed it would prefer a site within reach of the M50 in Dublin, as most of the patients are from the greater Dublin area. Mr Moloney said he was looking at two sites around Dublin and exploring the possibility of a site in the Midlands, as well as another option near Dublin. He also said the new director who will spearhead the implementation of the Vision for Change recommendations will be in place next week, ahead of a review of Vision for Change in January. Mental health campaigns involving sports personalities are also being planned. Meanwhile, a report on attitudes to mental health in the Dáil and Seanad has found one in four Oireachtas members have had concerns about their own mental health and 15% have sought help for a mental health problem.

Nine in 10 of Oireachtas members feel they would be better able to perform their duties if they received mental health awareness training, the report stated, which also revealed about one-third of Oireachtas members would not reveal a mental health problem or would be uncomfortable doing so. The report was prepared by the Cross Party Oireachtas Group on Mental Health. Regarding the disclosure of a mental health issue, the report states: “As yet no Irish politician has done this and perhaps the reasons for this can be discerned, in part, from the ambivalence expressed by other respondents when it came to personal disclosure of a mental health problem.

“It would appear in some ways the very nature of political life mitigates against the disclosure of a mental health problem.”