Up to 600 psychiatric patients who are detained against their will in psychiatric hospitals are to have the legal status of their detention reviewed by independent experts. Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent, reports
All decisions by consultant psychiatrists to detain involuntarily these patients will be reviewed by mental health tribunals which are due to be established shortly.
There is concern among campaigners and health professionals at the relatively high detention rates in psychiatric hospitals compared to other European countries.
Regional differences in committal rates mean patients are up to three times more likely to be detained against their will, depending on the part of the State where they live.
Details of the extent of the review of involuntarily detained patients come just weeks after John Manweiler (64) was awarded €3 million by a High Court jury which found he was unlawfully detained in a psychiatric hospital and improperly prescribed anti-psychotic drugs for more than a decade.
Bríd Clarke, the chief executive of the Mental Health Commission, the State watchdog for the mental health sector, said plans to establish the tribunals were at an advanced stage but were being delayed by a dispute involving hospital consultants.
Former inspector of mental hospitals Dr Dermot Walsh said yesterday he had issued a number of circulars to consultants asking them to review the legal status of detained patients but he was disappointed by the response.
"I asked them to do it as a matter of civil rights and also in view of the task the Mental Health Commission would face when all these patients' have their cases reviewed," he told The Irish Times. "The number who still remain involuntarily is disappointing."
Latest figures show there were 23,234 admissions to psychiatric hospitals in 2002. Ten per cent of all admissions were involuntary.
Under the 1945 Mental Treatment Act, a person may be detained in a psychiatric hospital for six months. This can be extended for up to two years.
Under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 2001, due to come into force shortly, each decision to detain or extend the detention of a patient will be subject to automatic review within 21 days by a mental health tribunal.
The Mental Health Commission estimates that once these measure come into force, up to 600 patients who have been detained against their will for long periods of time will have their cases reviewed. The commission hopes these measures will be in place later this year.
It is almost certain that a significant number of patients will have the status of their involuntary detention lifted. For example, latest figures show there are up to 170 patients with alcohol addiction problems, but who do not have a mental illness, detained against their will. This practice will end under the new regime.
Meanwhile, legal sources say the implications of the Manweiler case are significant for other psychiatric patients who feel they were unlawfully detained or had their rights breached.
The jury found in favour of Mr Manweiler on six key points relating to his unlawful admission and the prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs.
In a statement to The Irish Times, the Irish College of Psychiatrists said that while it could not comment on the case, there were complex reasons behind variations in involuntary detention. These included the absence of proper multi-disciplinary teams and emergency duty social workers and the varying levels of spending on mental health services between the different health authority regions.
Dr Walsh said that new safeguards due to come into force were aimed at ensuring there was not a repeat of cases such as Mr Manweiler's.
"Had the mental health tribunals been in place in 1984 [when Mr Manweiler was detained]," Dr Walsh said, "his case would have been automatically reviewed and all of that would never have happened. Unfortunately these safeguards are still not in place."