Mental health reform a 'priority'

THE REFORM of mental health services in Ireland must become “an absolute political priority”, executive director of Amnesty International Colm O’Gorman said yesterday.

Mr O’Gorman made his comments following the publication of an Amnesty-sponsored report on the implementation of the Government’s policy on mental health.

The issue of mental health reform “needs to be at the top table in the same way as we have seen in other areas of health delivery”, Mr O’Gorman said. Significant reforms were achieved in the delivery of cancer services despite high levels of opposition, Mr O’Gorman said. “Why hasn’t that happened in mental health?”

The Amnesty report, Accountability in the delivery of A Vision for Change, was written by economic consultants Indecon International and was launched in partnership with the Irish Mental Health Coalition.

The report recommends the introduction of monitoring mechanisms to ensure implementation of Government policy.

The Amnesty director called for a statutory obligation to be placed on the HSE to ensure implementation of the Government’s policy.

Legislation should be introduced to ensure accountability and “the progressive implementation of existing policy”, Mr O’Gorman said. He said there was “a lack of efficiency and transparency” where money is being spent.

Mr O’Gorman said implementation of the Government’s 2006 plan to reform mental health services, A Vision for Change, remains “severely” behind schedule.

Critical of current staffing levels and an “over-reliance” on acute in-patient care, he said there was a lack of understanding of the impact changes in in-house services have on service users.

At the end of 2008, the HSE was short of 1,000 staff in mental health services and lost a further 700 staff in 2009, he said.

“Because the HSE is not required to account for expenditure on a care group basis we don’t know if we are getting value for the investment in mental health services.”