Mental health promise - A qualified welcome

THE announcement by John Moloney, junior minister for mental health, yesterday that the country’s last 15 Victorian-era psychiatric hospitals will close within three years is most welcome.

Mr Moloney promised that 1,200 patients will be transferred to community facilities, while two new units will be built for children or adolescents. Some €50 million will be reinvested in facilities from the sale of assets.

No matter how unequivocally we might wish to welcome this announcement it must be tempered by experience.

We have not distinguished ourselves in the provision of proper facilities for mental health care, be it residential or community-based. It would be more reassuring too if the promise was not based on the sale of assets in a dreadfully depressed market.