The Mental Health Commission has warned that Health Service Executive mental health services could be removed from the register of approved centers if they fail to improve compliance.
The Commission has published its 2022 annual report, which includes a report on the inspection of 66 approved housing centres.
The report noted that when comparing the numbers before and after Covid-19, there was “overall and continued improvement and compliance across all services” when comparing pre and post-Covid-19 figures, reports RTE.
Slightly less than half of the approved centers achieved a compliance rate of 90% or better, and no service achieved less than 71%.
Chief Executive John Farrelly said it could now be said “undeniably” that standards in these four areas “are simply unacceptable, as they were in 2021 and in many years prior to that”, reports RTE.
He said: “Being compliant with these and other regulations, which, lest we forget, are minimum standards, is the very least that people living in the areas served by these centres deserve”, reports RTE.
Inspector of Mental Health Services Dr Susan Finnerty said some centers are “completely outdated and shouldn’t be providing a mental health service, they need replacement”, while others need refurbishment and structural work, reports RTE.
“It hasn’t been happening as quickly as we’d like to see. We are in communication with the HSE about this, they know we are extremely concerned about this,” she said, reports RTE.
In a statement, the HSE welcomed the report and acknowledgment of continued positive trends in some areas, saying there had been “significant investment” recently in mental health facilities, including the new National Forensic Mental Health Service in Portrane to replace the old one. replaces the Central Psychiatric Clinic.
However, the HSE also said it was “aware that there are areas requiring further improvement”, reports RTE.
“There is a real risk that we are beginning, as we did in the past, to once again re-institutionalise people who are mentally ill, elderly or who just do not ‘fit in’ to society”, Dr Finnerty said, reports RTE.
Dr Finnerty said around 2,000 people across the country receive long-term psychiatric care in hospital or HSE facilities.
Dr Finnerty said: “We haven’t really seen a great decrease in those numbers of centres. One of the problems I think is happening is that even as beds empty in those units, they are being filled again, and this is continuing to perpetuate, so we are not seeing a reduction in people living in these settings. This is continuing to institutionalise people,” reports RTE.
“Budget 2023 sees an additional €72 .8 million of funding for mental health services, including €14 million of new developments and €43 .8 million for existing level of services. There will be €10 million in mental health capital funding. This is, of course, welcome, but we are still a long way off from reaching the 10% of health funding proposed by Slaintecare”, she added, reports RTE.
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