Mental health staffing falls

Staffing levels in mental health services are down nearly 11% from what they were eight years ago.

According to the operation plan for the HSE’s Mental Health Division, mental health services had 8,922 full-time staff last November, compared to 9,985 at the end of 2006.

The Vision for Change document, which is designed to map future of mental health services, recommended that staff increase to 12,240 by 2016.

The Mental Health Division’s operational plan says the workforce figure is more than 2,000 short of the Vision for Change recommended levels, even if all the posts from the 2012 to 2014 investments were filled and nobody left.

The division is responsible for a gross budget of €765m, including €20m ringfenced to allow between 250 and 280 posts to be filled. It has warned of challenges in maintaining adequate staff numbers to deliver the desired model of care while natural retirements and incentivised exit plans are available to existing staff.

On a positive note, it says the gross mental health budget as a percentage of the overall health service frontline budget increased to 6.2% this year, up from 6.1% in 2013 and the first increase in recent years.

However, there is still a long way to go to reach the 8.4% recommended in Vision for Change, which itself is low compared to international figures.

The division, established last July, says its purpose is to provide safe services to those who needed them and to seek to improve them.

However, it warns that the delivery of its plan is impeded by a lack of a strong performance management culture supported by good data.

“This is exacerbated by the absence of a single national mental health information system and the dependence of a multitude of recording systems and processes.”

The division is also concerned that the budget and staffing assigned to mental health is based on an expected level of service demand.

“There is a risk that continued demographic pressures and increasing demand for services will be over and above the planned levels, thus impacting on the ability to deliver services.”

While every effort will be made to mitigate the risks, it may not be possible to eliminate them in full.