No advantage in isolation of mental health unit on hospital campus

I read the article on the soon to be opened Mental Health Unit at Cork University Hospital (“‘Fantastic’ mental health unit built with calm in mind”; Irish Examiner January 21) . 

Minister Kathleen Lynch and senior HSE management are glowing in their praise of the new facility which we are told is built to the highest specifications and will help to remove stigma.

What is not mentioned is the fact that the new unit has no connection with the main hospital and is entirely free-standing on a corner of the campus.

The current unit at CUH was opened in 1977 and was the first unit in Ireland to fully integrate an adult mental health facility into a general hospital. Of course as with other parts of CUH, it has aged over the years and is now rather dated.

While investment in new mental health facilities is to be welcomed, the building of a free standing unit disconnected from the main hospital is clearly a mistake.

Would cardiology, gastroenterology or any other discipline be forced by management to relocate in this manner? The answer to that question is obvious and for psychiatry the problems of a free standing unit are far graver.

In the current location, with all its limitations, psychiatry is an integral part of CUH while in the new facility we are disconnected in every sense. This sadly can only result in the increased stigmatisation of people with mental illness.

I have worked on both sides of the Atlantic and both sides of the Irish Sea and do not believe that the decision to relocate the unit at CUH to a peripheral site would be hailed as an advance anywhere else.

Ted Dinan

Professor and Consultant Psychiatrist

Cork University Hospital

Wilton

Cork