'Mental healthcare not fit for purpose'

Our mental servives are substandard in many areas and are not fit for purpose, it has been claimed.

The head of a major mental health campaigning group has said the HSE is not giving enough priority to improving health services in Ireland and has pointed to huge flaws in the service surrounding funding, restrictive practices and poor facilities.

John Saunders, Chair of the Irish Mental Health Coalition, says mental healthcare in Ireland is over-medicalised, with not enough emphasis on psychological and social therapy, and has queried the need for patients to first go through a psychiatrist before getting access to these therapies.

In an interview with irishhealth.com, Mr Saunders, who is also Director of Shine (formerly Schizophrenia Ireland) said there is far too much reliance on medication in mental healthcare "and this appears to be the one constant " in the delivery of services.

Mr Saunders says while some mental healthcare staff have embraced the need for change there is still a need for staff to embrace greater flexibility in the delivery of services.

He says patients currently being housed in old mental hospitals with poor conditions must be accommodated in more appropriate environments.

Mr Saunders feels the HSE has not given sufficient priority to developing services in line with the 2006 Vision for Change" blueprint and there has been a severe shortage of funding for the service, a situation that is unlikely to improve as the current economic crisis continues.

View the full interview at...

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=15824

[Posted: Fri 17/07/2009]