Herald Opinion: Delays in building new Roscommon psychiatric unit unacceptable
Mental illness is something that can affect anyone and patients and their families need to be supported. Pic: iStock
The importance of looking after mental health issues is well documented. Mental illness is something that can affect anyone and patients and their families need to be supported. Healthcare professionals are working tirelessly to do that, but they also need to be supported.
The accusation that psychiatry and mental health services are the ‘Cinderella’ of the health system has often been made. And while the government will point to increased investment in the services, these statements feel hollow when you consider the lack of urgency being displayed in providing a new department of psychiatry unit at Roscommon University Hospital.
The need for a new building has been recognised by everyone including the HSE for years, particularly in light of the need for more bed capacity at the unit. This is a point that has also been regularly mentioned before the local courts, where judges are told that a person requires hospitalisation but there are no beds.
The unit’s infrastructure has also been repeatedly criticised by regulator, the Mental Health Commission. While plans for a new unit are in train, it now seems that there will be a significant delay before anything concrete is done.
Despite telling this newspaper last summer that a business plan for a new 35 bed psychiatric unit was now complete, it now seems that these plans have gone back to the drawing board.
Last week, after questions from this paper, the HSE said that the original business plan is now being reviewed.
“The next steps are to develop a design brief and operational policy, both of which are currently being worked on for a new 50 bedded unit for Roscommon,” the spokesperson said. “It is expected that the project will be ready to submit for National approval later this year.”
This will be of very cold comfort to people struggling with mental illness, their families and staff. It is up to the new Government to expedite this build as soon as possible. People deserve no less.
