Wicklow Sinn Féin TD John Brady has described the publication of the Mental Health Commission’s annual report for 2023 as revelatory. The report lays bare the extent of underfunding and investment in Mental Health care in Wicklow.
There are no Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), or Intellectual Disability beds available in the whole of the Garden County. He argued that the HSE must properly invest in these mental health facilities and prioritise individual care planning, stating that the neglect of CAMHS in the County cannot be allowed to continue.
Brady said:
“The Mental Health Commission annual report made several worrying findings, which once again have brought to light how the lack of funding and priority from Government is affecting services across the state, but particularly here in Wicklow.
Another year and another report that highlights the postcode lottery of care that exist within our services.
There are zero number of CAMHS or Intellectual Disability beds available in Wicklow. In fact, there are only three counties in the state which have bed facilities for CAMHS patients, Dublin, Cork, and Galway.
There are a total of 46 beds available in County Wicklow, which are exclusively for adult Mental Health patients. In Counties, Dublin, Cork, and Galway, there are a total of 1,767 beds available, which includes beds for adult, CAHMS, and Intellectual Disability Patients.
To place this in comparative terms, Wicklow has 2.6% bed availability in comparison to these three counties.
There is also concern over compliance rates in the various CHO areas. Compliance rates of approved centres differed vastly over the topics Individual Care Plans, Premises, Staffing and Risk. These were measures of good practice and areas of concern.
In CHO 6, which covers the county Wicklow and Dublin South East, the area had a 0% compliance rating for premises, staffing and risk with a total average of the four measures of just 16.7%. This is a cause for alarm. CHO 5 (South Tipperary, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford) by comparison had a 60.7% average.
The report further revealed that 529 people using Mental Health Services died in 2023, from a range of causes. A figure which represented an increase of over 6% on the previous year’s deaths.
The report also revealed that there were a total of 94 Serious Reportable Events (SRE) in 2023. 42 of which were categorised as criminal assaults, described in the report as sexual assaults. Of the 42 criminal assaults, over a fifth took place in CHO 6.
The evidence contained in the Mental Health Commission Report speaks for itself. The undeniable fact is that Wicklow is being left behind in terms of the provision of Mental Health Services. With a serving and former Minister for Health in the County, this is simply not good enough. The people of Wicklow need to see results, at the very least they need to see this government deliver a Mental Health Service that at a minimum is on a parity with the rest of the state.