Mental health - Silent effects of recession

The dire repercussions of the worst recession in living memory may be causing serious mental health problems for people finding it impossible to make ends meet.

There is a real danger that this malaise can remain hidden until it is too late.

The risk, according to the country’s leading mental health hospital, St Patrick’s in Dublin, is that with most people finding it hard to survive, there will be little or no sympathy for anyone trying to cope with mental health problems because of the sheer weight of their financial difficulties.