A report published today claims that relocating the Central Mental Hospital to a prison site in north Co Dublin will be more expensive than redeveloping the existing site in Dundrum and does not follow best therapeutic practice.
Patients not Prisoners- which was published by the Central Mental Hospital Carers' Group, the Irish Mental Health Coalition and Schizophrenia Ireland – criticises the proposal to move the hospital to the Thornton Hall greenfield site in north Dublin.
The Thornton Hall site was chosen as the location for a new "super-prison" in January 2005.
In the report, Jim Power, chief economist with Friends First, said the Dundrum site could be redeveloped at no cost to the exchequer by selling off some land and using the money raised to rebuild the Central Mental Hospital, which has been criticised for having inadequate facilities.
According to Mr Power, selling 14 acres of the 34-acre site in Dundrum could raise up to €140 million, enough to build a new facility, which would cost around €100 million.
“This decision [to relocate] makes no social or economic sense. It would be far more sensible to sell some of the land at Dundrum and use this revenue to redevelop the existing site. This decision has all the hallmarks of having been scribbled on the back of an envelope,” Mr Power said.
“We have seen nothing from the Government to support the economic case for this decision. The HSE has yet to produce a legally required cost-benefit analysis of the options. So we’re seeing a Kafkaesque process where the analysis has yet to emerge two years after the decision was taken in May 2006.”
“If the Government wishes to trample over people’s rights in pursuit of economic savings, it has its sums wrong I’m afraid,” Mr Power added.
Patients not Prisonersalso referred to the international experience of Dr Paul Mullen, professor of forensic psychiatry at Monash University, Australia, in arguing that co-location with a prison "would not be in accordance with best therapeutic practice".
A spokesperson for the CMH Carers' Group said: “Not all of the CMH patients have not committed a crime, and all patients have a right to be free from stigma and discrimination. Placing them in a facility beside a prison can only lead to greater stigmatisation of mental illness generally.”
The group said the decision ran counter to the values set out in the national policy framework for mental health, and was opposed by the Mental Health Commission, the Human Rights Commission, and Central Mental Hospital patients and staff.
The organisation called on Minister for Health Mary Harney to reverse the relocation decision.
In response, the Department of Health said the new hospital at Thornton “will provide a therapeutic, forensic psychiatric service to the highest international standards, in a state-of–the-art building”.
John Moloney, Minister of State with special responsibility for Equality, Disability Issues and Mental Health, said the Government decision to relocate is consistent with A Vision for Change, which recommended the hospital should be replaced or remodelled for care and treatment in a modern, up-to-date humane setting.
Addressing concerns over isolation and proximity to Thornton prison, the Minister stressed that the redevelopment of the Central Mental Hospital is a stand-alone project, independent of the new prison, and added it will have a separate entrance and road access, and be run by the HSE.
The department said the cost of developing the new hospital would be met from the proceeds of the sale of the Dundrum site.
