Mental health - ‘Forgotten people’ must be helped

THE Government’s failure to match the promise of a new era for psychiatric patients with better services for the most vulnerable in society illustrates the cynical reality that politicians see no votes in mental health.

If mental health sufferers and their families had political clout, there would be no need for the Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Susan Finnerty, to berate the State for falling down on the provision of adequate resources for the very people who need them most.

Underlining the glaring inadequacies of the system, she hammers home the point that there is not enough manpower, not enough management, not enough communication and not enough direction within the system.