THERE ARE many reasons to feel gloomy about the lack of progress in modernising our outdated mental health service. Hundreds of children continue to be admitted to adult units of psychiatric hospitals because there is nowhere else for them to go.
Millions of euro allocated to develop new services have been diverted into meeting deficits elsewhere in the health sector. An ambitious 10-year plan to modernise mental health facilities is moving at a painfully slow rate.
Yet, against this dispiriting backdrop, the latest report from the Mental Health Commission - the independent statutory body with responsibility for promoting high standards - indicates significant improvements in the rights of patients. Until recently patients could be detained arbitrarily against their will for indefinite periods of time. Many of these patients did not suffer from mental illness and often had addiction problems or personality disorders. Since the full enactment of the Mental Health Act a year and a half ago there have been new safeguards aimed at protecting the rights of people who are admitted involuntarily to mental health services. On foot of these developments the overall number of involuntary detentions fell by 25 per cent last year compared to the 2005 figures.
These enhanced legal protections for patients are greatly encouraging. But they will account for little if they are not accompanied by real and meaningful improvements in the standard of mental health services. More than 1,000 people continue to languish in old psychiatric hospitals under unacceptable conditions, without meaningful access to recreational or therapeutic activities. The situation is even worse for patients who also have intellectual disabilities. Practices such as seclusion and restraint are carried out in residences which are not subject to independent inspections.
The coming months will tell us much about the priority that mental health holds for Government. It is vital, for example, that all money raised by selling off old psychiatric hospitals is ring-fenced and invested into building more humane mental health facilities. It is crucial, too, that money allocated for developing new services is not allowed to be siphoned away.
The Taoiseach has spoken of protecting the vulnerable in the face of cutbacks and cost-saving measures. Previous generations of mentally-ill patients were failed due to official neglect of the mental health service. To do so again, even when resources are scarce, would represent yet another unconscionable failure.