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Irish Mental Health Coaliiton Welcomes the Government Commitment to A Vision for Change

26th January 2009

The Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC) has today (Monday 26th) welcomed the Governments commitment to a Vision for Change. In its response to Minister John Moloney’s announcement, the IMHC acknowledged the commitment to reinvest funds from the sale of psychiatric hospitals into mental health, but called on the Minister to provide additional details.
 
Speaking on the announcement, Chair of the IMHC, John Saunders highlighted the following issues for clarification:

• Has the €42 million raised from the sale of Dublin properties, which the Minister stated should be made available for mental health infrastructure been transferred to the HSE as additional funding? If not when will it be given?
  
• The Psychiatric hospitals allocated for closure currently accommodate up to fifteen hundred people. What provisions have been made for those residing in these facilities?
  
• Considering the current economic climate, the sale of land and hence the reinvestment of money to mental health services is uncertain and unlikely to occur in the short term. Will the Government commit to providing the necessary money up front and claim back funds when the hospitals are eventually sold?

Mr. Saunders expressed disappointment at the absence of date for the publication of an implementation plan. “Three years after the publication of A Vision for Change an implementation plan has yet to be published.  The IMHC understands that a new implementation plan has been submitted by the HSE to the Minister for approval however a date for publication has not been announced. Publishing a detailed and adequate plan with detailed year on year targets, timeframes and human and financial resource commitments is imperative to implement a Vision for Change.
 
“From a recent IMHC report Late for an Important Date, it is clear that mental health services have been experiencing a painfully slow reform process and basic accountability is absent. The result is that people using services, their families and carers are struggling to access services which meet the most basic standards laid down for mental health services. Access to mental health services should not be considered a discretionary public service but a vital and sometimes emergency public service, the absence of which leads to breaches in the most fundamental of human rights. The IMHC welcomes today’s announcements and urges the Government to push forward to meet the real and urgent need for mental health reform.”