Psychiatric nurses warn relatives of staffing crisis

PSYCHIATRIC nurses in Kerry have issued a written warning to relatives of clients telling them that a staffing crisis is threatening to overwhelm the “neglected” services which are being “dismantled” due to a lack of investment.

The ongoing staffing crisis within the psychiatric services is coming to a head in many areas around the country, while community services which were set up over the past 20 years are being reduced.

In Kerry, the Psychiatric Nurses Association sent a memo to families warning them about the “hugely negative impact” of under-staffing.

According to the PNA, the HSE is proposing to reduce or close many community services painstakingly built up over years.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, a staff nurse working in community- based group homes in Killarney said she works alone with 47 clients.

“I feel the service at the moment is very poor and we are letting people down,” she said. “People are scattered in houses with no central base or structure and we have to try and get around to them all. We need a proper rehabilitation team to meet the needs of people who are coming from institutional care, we need more staff, and we need someone in charge. We have no clinical nurse manager in this area so there is no direction. We are providing a skeleton service.”

The nurse said staff are anxious that with only one nurse on by day, and one by night, they might not be able to cope with a crisis.

“We have written several letters expressing our concerns. We are constantly worrying that something will happen and that is no way to work.”

Western regional representative of the PNA Noel Giblin said addiction counselling services in Roscommon have been reduced significantly and the service will be forced to have waiting lists of weeks or possibly even months depending on demands.

Mr Giblin said in the past two years the service has been “eroded and retreated” and has become totally outdated: “Older person mental health and conditions like Alzheimer’s disease or dementia often required the very specialised services. However, Roscommon has no older persons mental health community team and no nursing home mental health liaison team.

“Added to this management and consultants at Roscommon Mental Health Service have planned to impose more cuts on the services offered to patients. The PNA have been informed that they plan to reduce the seven-day service at the newly built and opened Roscommon Day Hospital to a five-day service with no weekend cover. This service offers counselling, crisis management and mental health advice to other professionals in the general healthcare areas. It is the only weekend community service offered. There is also a plan to half the nursing complement at the Athlone day centre.”

Director of the organisation Mental Health Reform Orla Barry said the impact of the moratorium on mental health services has been brutal, as it is much too blunt a tool which needs to be fine-tuned as a matter of urgency.

“Community mental health services reduce the rate of suicide and reduce much more costly hospital admissions. Good community mental health services can encourage people to live as independently as possible in the community,” she said.