Limerick East): Acute in-patient beds for the Dublin north city and county are provided in St. Ita's Hospital. This catchment area is also serviced by a range of community services — out-patient clinics, day hospitals, day care centres, group homes and a vocational and sheltered employment facility. The Eastern Health Board has been pursuing a policy of transferring mental health services from institutional settings to community care settings, in line with the recommendations of the report on the development of the mental health services Planning for the Future (1984) which has been accepted as mental health policy by successive Governments.
With the development of a localised community-based catchment area services, admissions to large psychiatric hospitals such as St. Ita's Hospital will be curtailed and in the longer term discontinued. Since 1984, the psychiatric in-patient population in St. Ita's Hospital has reduced from 475 to 266. The long-term objective is to provide all acute psychiatry for the catchment area in Beaumont Hospital. The board's development plan for St. Ita's Hospital will effect the phasing-out of all hospital wards in the main building over the next four to five years. St. Ita's campus will then consist of the following buildings:
Psychiatric Service: Admission and Assessment Unit.
