The appointment of an Inspector of Mental Health Services who will operate within the independent Mental Health Commission was announced yesterday.
Dr Teresa Carey will start inspections from January 1st, 2004.
The Mental Health Act 2001 established the commission and provided that the existing post of Inspector of Mental Hospitals, which comes under the Department of Health, should be replaced by the new position with the independent body.
The inspector will be responsible for visiting and inspecting facilities in the State where mental services are provided and to furnish a written report to the commission on the quality of care and treatment.
The inspector will also publish an annual report.
Dr Carey is currently clinical director in the Cavan-Monaghan Mental Health Service. She trained in psychiatry, completing the senior registrar training programme in Galway in 1988. She worked as a consultant psychiatrist in Alberta, Canada, for a period.
Following the completion of an MBA, she was appointed consultant psychiatrist in the Cavan- Monaghan Mental Health Service in 1990 and clinical director in 2002.
Dr Carey has an interest in rehabilitation psychiatry and has established an innovative specialist rehabilitation service.
She has been co-ordinator of the national senior registrar training programme since 2000.
Ms Bríd Clark, chief executive officer of the Mental Health Commission said: "This new appointment is another important step in relation to the implementation of the Mental Health Act 2001."
The present Inspector of Mental Hospitals is Dr Dermot Walsh who this month was appointed to an expert group established by the Government to prepare a new policy on mental health.