Home settings, such as the bungalow in Lispopple, provide a much better quality of life for residents in the care of the psychiatric services, according to the Northern Area Health Board (NAHB). Most of these residents may attend day-care services or even work in training centres.
The majority of people living with a mental illness are not cared for in a hospital or a "high-support" setting, according to Dr Richard Blennerhassett, clinical director of psychiatry at St Ita's Hospital, Portrane, Co Dublin.
He points out that the "lifetime" risk for any person to suffer schizophrenia, "one of the more serious" mental illnesses, is one in a hundred.
The implication is clear - in any given group of people, it is virtually certain that at least one person will either suffer from, or have family contact with, mental illness at some stage in their lives.
Community homes with tight support structures are increasingly being used to rehouse people accustomed to living in an institution. The six people likely to move into Carlton House, which is the first high-support home for mentally ill people in the NAHB area, range in age from their mid-20s to perhaps 50, according to Dr Blennerhassett.
They have been diagnosed with a mix of psychiatric conditions, ranging from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness to other "ongoing depressive conditions", but have undergone a stringent clinical assessment and socialisation process to ensure their suitability to live in the house.
"Their diagnoses do not mean they are suffering from these conditions in the acute sense or that they are acutely unwell or unstable," said Dr Blennerhassett.
Terminology latched on to by some of those opposing the move includes the label "high support", a description which is not synonymous with "high risk", Dr Blennerhassett and the NAHB are keen to state. There are 31 such hostels in the NAHB area, 15 of which are termed high-support, while the others are low to medium support.
"High support means that you have nursing staff around the clock. If the person needs to go back into a ward, then that can be speedily done," Dr Blennerhassett said.
Successive reports by the Inspector of Mental Hospitals had taken the St Ita's service to task for being "very much behind" in providing community places and this was now being addressed, the consultant added.
Acknowledging criticisms of the "care in the community" policy in the UK, Dr Blennerhassett said he believed this was due to a "lack of co-ordination of care between the various agencies involved" and that people were in some cases "slipping through the net".
"Nobody who has a history of serious violence and nobody who has any history of anything such as paedophilia or inappropriate sexual behaviour will be moved into Carlton House."
Dr Blennerhassett said he was "very concerned" at the apparent increase in the protesters' activity yesterday and he hoped things would settle down to allow the six people who were among "the most vulnerable residents in our community" to move into the house.