A full review of Irish mental health services was sought yesterday after a damning report on the level of care provided to mentally-ill persons across the State was published by Amnesty International.
The Director of Schizophrenia Ireland, Mr John Saunders, called for the review, pointing out that staff working in the sector were demoralised and still working under 1984 guidelines, which he claimed urgently needed updating.
He said the percentage of health spending dedicated to mental healthcare had dropped from 9 to 7 per cent over the last 10 years. "It's really the Cinderella of the healthcare system," he said.
Furthermore, he added, it could take 18 months before someone presenting with severe mental illness got treatment.
The Amnesty report, Mental Illness: The Neglected Quarter, said Ireland had failed to recognise good mental healthcare as a basic human right. The care here was "seriously out of step" with international best practice. Underfunding was singled out as the main cause.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, acknowledged that Irish mental health services did not get the kind of investment they needed in years gone by. "Considerable progress has been made, if somewhat slowly. We know we have a lot more to do," he said.
Dr Justin Brophy, a consultant psychiatrist and chairman of the Irish Psychiatric Association, said Irish mental health services had been overstretched for years, and under-funded. Further cutbacks were now being imposed, he said.
"Training for psychologists in Ireland has now been cut. There are 50 psychologist vacancies alone in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area," he said.
"We really need political will to change things," he said, adding that professionals working in the areas were demoralised and frustrated.
"We are unfortunately cast in the position of trying to do too much with too little on a daily basis".
Mr Des Kavanagh, general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, urged the Government to allocate directly money for mental health services.
He claimed health boards couldn't otherwise be trusted to channel the money into mental healthcare.
The director of the Irish section of Amnesty, Mr Sean Love, said the State could be faced with tribunals of inquiry in 20 years' time into how it treated the mentally ill if it didn't act now.
The Labour Party's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said there must be a concerted effort to address the serious deficiencies outlined in the report.
"It should be a matter of national shame that the quality of mental healthcare in a prosperous and developed country like Ireland should be the subject of such damming criticism from a prestigious international organisation such as Amnesty," she said.
Mr John Gormley, the Green Party's health spokesman, said the report cried out for Government action. He said it was outrageous that in 2003 persons with intellectual disabilities were still being treated in run-down psychiatric hospitals rather than being cared for in the community with properly funded and appropriate facilities.