The care of Mayo's most vulnerable citizens in substandard facilities reflects poorly on the State

In its annual report published in recent days, the Mental Health Commission warned that public mental health services must improve compliance in four key areas or face a real risk of being removed from the register of approved mental health centres.

On the positive side, the review showed that there has been an overall and continued improvement in compliance across all services when comparing pre-and post-Covid-19 pandemic figures.

However, four regulations had compliance rates lower than 70%, a factor that John Farrelly, the commission’s chief executive, said the public system can no longer ignore if the State hopes to meet what he underlines are minimum standards for the provision of mental health services to its citizens.

“Notwithstanding that providers should be generally applauded for the significant work they have undertaken in recent years to improve overall compliance, we can now undeniably say that there are four key areas – premises, risk management, individual care planning, and staffing – where standards are simply unacceptable,” said Mr. Farrelly.

As a recent inspection report revealed, the adult mental health unit at Mayo University Hospital is one of those facing deregistration after a critical risk alert was issued over the sharp drop in staffing levels from 44 to 30 since the end of 2011, a point disputed by the Castlebar centre on the basis that it had an overall compliance rate of 89% and was registered last March for a further three-year period.

Reacting to the commission’s annual report, Mental Health Reform said the findings expose the negative consequences of historic underfunding in our mental health services such as poor quality facilities, overcrowding and a lack of community-based care.

“When people are experiencing distress, they should be met with a qualified healthcare practitioner.

“The admission of young people with enduring mental health difficulties to long stay approved centres is very worrying. Congregated settings are not the best environment for those with complex needs. People with long-term mental health difficulties have a right to live independently and be included in the community,” it noted.

The situation reflects very poorly on the State as a whole.

In last Tuesday's issue of The Connaught Telegraph, we revealed a disturbing case in which an autistic adult in the mental unit at Mayo University Hospital is not receiving the level of support and services he requires because of what his mother described as ‘a Victorian health model’ operating there.

Her courage in coming forward to tell her story deserves to be applauded because it may prove the trigger that is needed for the Minister of Health to recognise the true scale of the crisis within our mental health services.

As former Castlebar councillor Harry Barrett, who has been engaging with the family of the adult in question, said, the disturbing insight puts a human face on what happens when your local adult mental health unit is not up to standard.

This situation cannot be ignored any longer as the spectre of Mayo losing its high dependence unit grows greater by the week.

It simply cannot be allowed to happen.