People wrongly placed in psychiatric care

The placing of people with an intellectual disability in psychiatric care, sometimes for years even though they do not have a mental illness, features heavily in the complaints made last year to the health service’s confidential recipient.

Leigh Gath said inappropriate placements, in nursing homes and acute psychiatric services, had “a huge impact on quality of life”.

So too did the lack of respite care available to families caring for loved ones with significant intellectual disabilities, as outlined in her report for 2017, published yesterday.