100 remand prisoners a year referred for mental health treatment

One hundred inmates a year at the country’s largest remand prison are being referred to services outside the jail system for pronounced mental health problems.

Dr Conor O’Neill, consultant forensic psychiatrist, Central Mental Hospital Dundrum, also said that 44% of the people dealt with by the diversion service in Cloverhill Prison in Dublin last year were homeless.

Dr O’Neill, alongside his colleague on the Cloverhill court diversion and liaison scheme, Dr Damien Mohan, is among the speakers at the two-day annual conference of the Irish Association of Suicidology, which begins today in Westport.