Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 April 2004
109 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of psychiatric patients living in the wider community; the services available to them; and if he is aware of the many patients that do not have proper back-up community service. [10342/04]
View answerMy Department does not record the number of people within the community who avail of mental health services during the course of their lives. The World Health Organisation indicated that one in four people will suffer a mental disorder at some time in their lives. Five of the ten most disabling disorders are psychiatric in nature. Unipolar depression, alcohol misuse, bipolar affective disorder or manic depression, schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder are among the ten leading causes of disability worldwide.
In recent years substantial progress has been made in ensuring that those in need of mental health services receive care and treatment in the most appropriate setting. Health boards have developed, and will continue to develop, a modern comprehensive community based mental health service. This has resulted in a continuing decline in the number of inpatients from 5,192 in 1997 to 3,966 in 2002. There was a corresponding increase in the provision of a range of care facilities based in the community. There are approximately 410 community psychiatric residences here providing over 3,100 places. Statistics compiled by the Health Research Board indicate that there were 239 out-patient clinics held throughout Ireland in 2002, with 245,239 attendances. There were 63 day hospitals with a total of 982 places and 174,893 attendances and there were 116 day centres with 2,458 places and 432,460 attendances.
