Gaps in services see mentally ill people end up in prison
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A new report has laid bare the shortfall in mental health services for people in the criminal justice system, claiming those who have offended are not afforded equal access to the care they need.
The report, written by Dr Susan Finnerty, Inspector of Mental Health Services, with support from Patricia Gilheaney, Inspector of Prisons, highlights the chronic shortage of services available to those who need them.
Dr Finnerty said people who are mentally ill and who have been accused or convicted of a criminal offence have unequal access to mental health services compared to those who have not offended and there are "many gaps in Irish mental health services which lead to mentally ill people ending up in prison".
She referred to the under-resourced mental health service where the only out-of-hours provision is through A&E departments, the lack of formal pre-arrest diversion, and an under-resourced and over-worked court diversion service.
"We still have people who are severely mentally ill locked in isolation units and other areas of prisons awaiting mental health care in appropriate settings, in particular in the Central Mental Hospital," she said, adding that this was a breach of human rights.
Dr Finnerty said in some prisons, the in-reach teams are substantially under-resourced and struggle to provide a comprehensive service while there is a growing waiting list for the Central Mental Hospital (CMH), alongside "insufficient intensive care rehabilitation beds to facilitate the onward recovery journey of residents who could be discharged".
"The catchment area restrictions mean that homeless people have insurmountable difficulties in accessing local mental health care following release and are often lost to follow-up and likely to re-offend," she said.
Despite the new facility in Portrane which will increase the number of forensic beds from two per 100,000 of the population to 3.5 per 100,000, Dr Finnerty said this was still substantially lower than many other European countries.
"It is not a sufficient number now and won’t be into the future, especially bearing in mind the absence of investment in other areas of general and forensic mental health care."
Finally, she said the "very poor" resourcing of the forensic mental health teams in Cork and Limerick is quite astounding, especially as there is no coherent plan for the development of these services, even in view of the new women’s prison planned for Limerick.
There are no intensive care regional units in the south and west, as set out in the government policy of a “hub-and-spoke” model of forensic mental health services.
The report cites earlier research indicating the very high level of mental health issues and substance abuse problems among the Irish prison population.
"These studies confirm that a significant proportion of Irish prisoners present with a current psychotic or major affective disorder, which are potentially treatable mental illnesses," it said.
The report was called
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