HSE urged to shelve plans for mental health facility in Co Cork

Councillors heard that St Stephen’s Hospital at Sarsfield’s Court in Glanmire will be the site of Cork's new elective hospital, an unsuitably medicalised setting for the mental health unit

Councillors backed Liam Quaide’s proposal to urge the HSE not to proceed with the unit at St Stephen’s Hospital, Sarsfield’s Court, in  Glanmire, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

The HSE is being urged to shelve plans to build a 50-bed mental health facility at “an isolated” Co Cork hospital.

Cork County Council has written to the health authority after councillors unanimously backed a call from independent councillor Liam Quaide — a senior clinical psychologist — who is opposed to HSE plans to build the unit at St Stephen’s Hospital at Sarsfield’s Court, Glanmire.

The planned 50-bed continuing care and rehabilitation mental health service unit is proposed to provide long-stay residential placement for people with severe and long-term mental illness.

However, Mr Quaide said the proposal contradicts international best practice which advises that patients with mental illness should be cared for within their own communities.

He told a meeting of Cork County Council that the proposed unit “breaches national and international policy on service provision for this client group”.

On foot of a passionate speech by Mr Quaide, the council is now asking the HSE to redirect the multi-million-euro investment planned at the hospital to 24-hour staffed community mental health residences across the county instead.

Mr Quaide said the North Cork HSE catchment is currently the only area in the Cork/Kerry region whose service provision is compliant with A Vision for Change for this client group, with a full multi-disciplinary rehabilitation mental health team, as well as a community residence in each of the three main towns of Mallow, Fermoy, and Kanturk.

Independent councillor Liam Quaide said the proposed location is 'at odds with A Vision for Change and the HSE’s model of care for people with severe and enduring mental illness and complex needs'.

Mr Quaide previously worked as a clinical psychologist with the North Cork mental health services, and said that efforts were made in the 1990s and 2000s to help transition long-stay patients of St Stephen’s into communities.

He said the HSE’s plan runs counter to the ethos of community integration.

St Stephen’s is “an isolated hospital campus with very poor connectivity to the nearest town,” Mr Quaide told council colleagues.

“The grounds are spacious and impressive, but they will be the site of a new elective hospital in Cork which will also make it a particularly medicalised setting. The locating of continuing care and rehabilitation mental health residences on this campus is clearly at odds with A Vision for Change and the HSE’s model of care for people with severe and enduring mental illness and complex needs.

“It also runs counter to the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities which enshrines the right of people with the highest level of mental health need to live in their community,” Mr Quaide told colleagues.

“There are clear disadvantages to the client group in terms of poor community integration, detachment from local supports and a potential for institutionalised care,” he said.