Older mental health clients to return to revamped unit

OLDER people with mental health problems who have been moved out of a 19th-century asylum deemed unfit for purpose by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) will move back again once a unit has been refurbished.

St Ita’s hospital at Portrane in Dublin was ordered to close last year after the MHC consistently found it was in extremely poor condition.

The hospital was identified as a “black spot” in the 2003 report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, when it was among eight services that were identified as being “unacceptable for the care and treatment of patients because of seriously unsatisfactory conditions”.