Experts raise concerns over beds shortage in new Central Mental hospital
The paper said prison landings are normally overcrowded with “acutely psychotic prisoners in double occupancy cells waiting for psychiatric admissions that cannot happen for want of beds”.
The limited number of beds in the new national forensic psychiatric hospital is likely to pose a “significant challenge” given the level of need, clinical chiefs in the hospital have said.
The country’s top forensic psychiatrists said “acutely psychotic prisoners” are sharing prison cells as they wait for psychiatric admissions that “cannot happen for want of beds”.
The experts from the National Forensic Mental Health Service (NFMHS) in the Central Mental Hospital, urged a greater State emphasis on reducing deaths, preventing violence, and cutting imprisonment among those with severe mental disorders.
Writing in the , the psychiatrists said their work in wards and prisons was very challenging during Covid-19 and said the pandemic “may continue in waves for some time”.
Authors, Professor Harry Kennedy, head of the NFMHS, and consultants Dr Damien Mohan and Dr Mary Davoren, said that a 2006 expert report recommended the establishment of 350 secure forensic beds.
“The Department of Health responded to this recommendation by commissioning 130 secure forensic beds,” it said, adding that 20 of these were for the new field of intellectual and developmental disorders.
It said a further 40 beds had been added to the new Central Mental Hospital, in Portane, north Dublin.
“The development of the new NFMHS Portrane will take Ireland from 2 secure forensic beds/100,000 population to 3.5 per 100,000, still one of the lowest resources in Europe,” the authors said.
The paper said prison landings are normally overcrowded with “acutely psychotic prisoners in double occupancy cells waiting for psychiatric admissions that cannot happen for want of beds”.
It said that of 4,000 prisoners in Ireland, there are ‘normally’ between 250 and 300 prisoners on the caseload of forensic psychiatry in reach teams, with about 30 at any time waiting for transfer to local approved centres or to the (forensic) Central Mental Hospital.
There are “high risks of suicide for those with substance misuse” it said, which has attracted criticism by international human rights bodies, such as the Council of Europe.
The authors said that with Covid-19 restrictions, the change from court appearances by patients transferred overnight to remote link, which they said was “hugely beneficial”.
“Up to now patients awaiting trial were sent from forensic hospital to courts in person, even for minor procedural matters," they said.
"This exposed patients to many risks and stresses, handcuffed in secure vehicles, crowded into holding cells, offered illicit substances.”
They said that large numbers of staff were required and that videolinked court appearances reduced the risk of escape or abscond, further minimising the use of handcuffs.
“This positive development should remain in place long after the current crisis resolves,” they said.
