Amnesty seeks more resources for mental health services

The Irish branch of Amnesty International has called on the Government to provide more resources to Ireland's mental health services.

The organisation said patients' human rights were being infringed because of a lack of investment in the area and the poor standard of available services.

Spokesperson Fiona Crowley said: "We have an overly-high rate of reliance of hospital-based care [and] not enough investment in community-based services.

"Special services available for children are just appalling in many respects, [as are those available] for homeless people, for prisoners, for other marginalised groups.

"Right across the board, I think the Government itself has conceded that services available are patchy, poorly co-ordinated and severely under-resourced."

Ms Crowley was speaking ahead of a World Health Organisation conference in Helsinki this week at which governments are expected to agree a Mental Health Declaration to safeguard the rights of the mentally ill.