Mental health services need radical reform in short term – and less bureaucracy

THE recent report from the Inspector of Mental Health Services described “the dilapidated, desolate and depressing condition of wards in some of our mental health hospitals... ” This has been the case for many years.

I have visited some of these hospitals in Cork, Dublin and Mullingar. When I was chairman of the South Cork Committee of the then Southern Health Board, we visited hospitals in the region. When I asked to see inside the closed doors section in some hospitals, I was branded a “troublemaker” not by any hospital staff member but, strange to relate, by some of my colleagues on the visiting committee. I have always been vociferous in drawing attention to the bad conditions in some of these hospitals. It seemed my calls had fallen on deaf ears until RTÉ showed two programmes on the almost inhumane conditions under which patients have to suffer and dedicated staff have to labour. Despite some opposition to my stance, progress was made. While lack of finance and resources meant some mental handicap centres and psychiatric hospitals would continue to exist for some years, in the interim smaller units should be established within them to function as family-like groups.

Other alternatives should include small units and homes within the community. With the stresses and strains of modern living there has been, in my opinion, an increase in the number of people suffering from mental illnesses.