The Irish Mental Health Coalition campaigns for improved and prioritised mental health services in Ireland. Our campaign aims to increase the pressure on those with the power to improve mental health services. With your help, our concerted action can make a difference.
The organisers of the campaign, are Amnesty International, Bodywhys – The Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, GROW in Ireland, the Irish Advocacy Network and Schizophrenia Ireland. The Coalition seeks to improve the lives of people with mental health difficulties by advocating for people’s rights to the highest attainable standard of mental health and mental healthcare.
...more about the coalitionMental Health Commission report highlights impending crisis
June 2010“Entirely unacceptable and inhumane.” That one, let alone “a number” of mental health facilities are being described in such a manner is a chilling indictment of Ireland’s mental health service. In addition, the Mental Health Commission’s (MHC) annual report, released today (16/06/10), also states there has been no overall discernible improvement in services in 2009, despite pockets of progress across the country.
Orla Barry, Director of the Irish Mental Health Coalition, said: “It is deeply worrying that the MHC’s report describes 2009 as a year in which there was only ‘limited change of a positive nature on the ground’ and that there were ‘no major improvements in the quality of care and treatment’.
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Amnesty Launch Report on Accountability in the Delivery of
A Vision for Change
May 2010 Amnesty International Ireland and the Irish Mental Health Coalition have launched a report highlighting the problem of lack of effective reform of the mental health services. The report entitled Accountability in the Delivery of A Vision for Change was commissioned by Amnesty International Ireland and written by Indecon International Economic Consultants.
Mental Health Reform Vital to Combat Economic and Social Difficulty
October 2009The Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC) has today stated that mental health reform must be central to Government response to the current economic and social difficulties. Launching their pre-budget submission, ahead of World Mental Health Day (10th October), the IMHC stated that restricting spending on mental health services will not necessarily lead to cost savings.
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IMHC applauds plans not to relocate Central Mental Hospital on prison site
July 2009The Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC) has welcomed the move not to relocate the Central Mental Hospital to Thornton Hall, north county Dublin.
John Saunders, Chair of the IMHC, said: “We applaud the Minister for Disability, Mental Health and Equality, and the Department of Health and Children for this decision."
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IMHC Conference on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation
May 2009More than 150 people attended a conference hosted by the Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC) entitled Mental Health: Human Rights and Legislation - What’s possible in Ireland at the Radisson Royal SAS Hotel in central Dublin on the 18th of May. The aim of the conference was to kick-start a discussion on how legislation could be used to uphold international human rights standards relating to mental health services and to realise the ambitions of A Vision for Change, the Government’s mental health policy.
Highlights included a call by included Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, for the Irish government to prioritise mental health and the launch of a new campaign website called A Vision of Rights by the IMHC.
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Some of the most vulnerable people in Irish society are in facilities that are intolerable
May 2009'Forgotten and neglected", living "cold empty, colourless lives", in "19th century buildings unfit for purpose".
Last week's annual report for 2008 by the inspector of mental health services into national standards makes for disturbing reading. It was highly critical, listing a string of serious failures at a number of hospitals and mental health facilities around Ireland.
Some of the most vulnerable people in Irish society are living in facilities that, put simply, are intolerable. Basic levels of privacy and dignity are eroded.
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