Little change in cruel mental healthcare

I refer to your review (Life/Style, Feb 7) of the history of mental healthcare in Ireland by Richard Fitzpatrick.

Indeed, the history of mental healthcare in Ireland, as elsewhere, was ignorant and cruel. However, in 21st century Ireland our mental healthcare in Ireland is nothing to proud of, with underfunding and understaffing being the order of the day.

Over the past five years the mental health service has lost almost one-third of its staff, the vast majority being nurses. There are currently 1,500 vacancies within the service which the Government and HSE are refusing to fill. Spending on mental health services has fallen to a all-time low of 4.9% of the total health budget in 2012 (12% being the international WHO/OECD norm).