Mental health centres across the country are being forced to offer only beds and medication to distressed and extremely vulnerable patients due to chronic understaffing.
Those affected include people potentially experiencing severe depression, psychosis, mania, suicidal distress or extreme anxiety, the Irish Examiner reports, reports Breaking News.
Multiple approved centres currently have only nursing and psychiatric staff available to care for vulnerable patients, with essential multidisciplinary services such as psychology, occupational therapy and social work either vacant or facing ongoing recruitment difficulties.
The issue is particularly acute in the Midlands, where no psychologist, occupational therapist or social worker has ever been assigned to any of the region’s three centres, reports Breaking News.
Approved mental health centres are registered psychiatric in-patient units or hospitals.
There are approximately 60 of them nationwide, with more than 2,000 patients resident at any one time, a further 50 in child mental health services, and close to 16,000 admissions per year, reports Breaking News.
The median length of stay for an in-patient in these centres is just over three months.
The Mental Health Commission’s code of practice for approved centres states that multidisciplinary teams at each centre should include psychiatry, nursing, social work, clinical psychology and occupational therapy, reports Breaking News.
Psychology, social care and occupational therapy each provide therapeutic support for different aspects of each patient’s needs — from assessing difficulties or trauma, to addressing family housing and welfare challenges, to equipping patients with the practical skills needed to leave a centre safely.
Cork East TD Liam Quaide, a clinical psychologist who obtained the staffing information from the HSE via parliamentary question, said: “An in-patient mental health setting should not be reduced to beds, medication, and observation,” reports Breaking News.
He said people admitted to such units “are often at one of the lowest and most frightening points in their lives,” reports Breaking News.
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