Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 6 May 1998

Vol. 490 No. 5

Written Answers. - Patient Categorisation.

John Browne

Ceist:

198 Mr. Browne (Wexford) asked the Minister for Health and Children the persons staying in a psychiatric hospital who can be categorised as a lodger; the circumstances under which a person can be, or be detained as, a lodger; if there is a limit to the length of time a person can be facilitated under this heading; if the legal responsibilities and the duty of care for psychiatric nurses to this category of person are similar to those of a person admitted to a psychiatric hospital on a voluntary, temporary person of unsound mind form. [10637/98]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

Section 261 of the Mental Treatment Act, 1945, states that a person not of unsound mind may be lodged as a boarder in a mental hospital. The decision to lodge a person in a psychiatric hospital is clinically based. Persons who are lodged are cared for similarly to those admitted as voluntary, temporary or persons of unsound mind patients. There is no limit to the length of time a person can be lodged as a boarder and such persons are not detained against their will.