MENTAL HEALTH campaigners and professionals say hundreds of people with mental health problems continue to be housed in appalling conditions in psychiatric hospitals and are in receipt of sub-standard care.
This follows the screening of Behind the Walls, RTÉ’s documentary series on the history of psychiatric hospitals in Ireland.
It showed that Ireland had a remarkably high rate of hospitalisation of psychiatric patients with more than 21,000 patients residing in institutions during the 1950s and 1960s.
While most now agree there has been significant progress in developing alternatives to institutional care over recent decades, many are sharply critical at the pace of change and the nature of care available today.
Latest figures show there were just over 2,800 patients resident in Irish psychiatric hospitals in 2010, a rate similar to the UK and other jurisdictions.
Almost 1,000 of these patients were living in Victorian-era institutions.
The Inspector for Mental Health Service has reported in recent years that a number of wards in these psychiatric institutions were “unfit for human habitation” and “should be decommissioned as a matter of urgency”.
Dr Siobhán Barry, a consultant psychiatrist and spokeswoman for the Irish College of Psychiatry, said a lack of political will and accountability means many aspects of the service continue to struggle.
“In the 20 years I’ve been in practice, there has been some extreme changes. In terms of young people who become psychotic, the majority aren’t hospitalised anymore. We have more effective treatment and we’re more aware of early warning signs.”
Paddy McGowan, a former patient and one of the founders of the Irish Advocacy Network, said the voice of patients is beginning to be heard, though progress is too slow.
The State’s mental health watchdog, the Mental Health Commission, has also expressed frustration at how the model of treatment across much of the service has yet to change. Chief executive Patricia Gilheaney said during the summer: “While a greater number of policy-makers and staff have embraced this concept, there are still too many instances in which the treatment system sees treatment as about managing patients rather than facilitating their recovery.”
John McCarthy, a former patient and founder of Mad Pride Ireland said: “Nothing, fundamentally, has changed. I am visiting people in their 70s, locked up all their lives, and people in their 20s, locked up all their lives.
People are still being forced to take medication or are being incarcerated against their will.”
