O’Connell opens mental health unit for teens

TEENAGERS suffering from anxiety, eating disorders and psychosis can be admitted to a specialist mental health unit which opened yesterday.

Vulnerable youngsters at risk of suicide will be among the patients admitted to the Willow Grove Adolescent In-patient Unit in St Patrick’s University Hospital, Dublin.

An estimated 20% of teenagers in Ireland have a mental illness at any one time, with as many as one in 200 needing hospital inpatient care.