Vol. 527 No. 5
44 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the findings of the report Activities of Irish Psychiatric Services, 1999, which found that non-voluntary admissions to psychiatric hospitals here are much higher than in other EU countries; the action he will take on foot of these findings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28915/00]
The report entitled Activities of Irish Psychiatric Services, 1999, published recently by the Health Research Board, notes that 11% of all admissions to psychiatric hospitals and units in 1999 were involuntary admissions. This represented a rate for involuntary admissions in Ireland of 75.3 per 100,000 of total population, compared with a rate of 49 per 100,000 in England and Wales and 26 per 100,000 in Italy.
The Mental Health Bill, 1999, currently before the Oireachtas, will modernise Irish law in relation to involuntary detention of persons for psychiatric care and treatment. The Bill provides for the establishment of an independent agency to be known as the Mental Health Commission. Its primary function will be to promote and foster high standards and good practices in the delivery of mental health services and to ensure that the interests of detained persons are protected.
The Bill further provides that each decision by a consultant psychiatrist to detain a patient on an involuntary basis and each decision to extend the duration of such detention will have to be referred to the commission, which will arrange for an independent review of the decision by a mental health tribunal. The tribunal will arrange, on behalf of the detained person, for an independent assessment by a consultant psychiatrist. The tribunal will also be empowered to order the release of the patient if it considers that he or she does not require to be detained.
It is expected that, when implemented, the provisions of the Mental Health Bill will bring about a reduction over time in the number of decisions to detain a person involuntarily and thus bring the rate for involuntary detention in this country closer to that pertaining in other European countries.
