Commenting on the publication today (17 June 2020) of the new national mental health policy, ‘Sharing the Vision – a Mental Health Policy for Everyone’, IHCA President Dr Donal O’Hanlon said: “The new mental health policy has failed to set out the urgent workforce requirements needed to staff a modern psychiatric service. The Mental Health Services must recruit the required number of Consultant Psychiatrists, a near doubling in the current number, and other staff prescribed by the previous policy ‘A Vision for Change’ and a plethora of other expert reports. This requires the filling of all Consultant Psychiatrist posts on a permanent basis. We simply do not have the resources and the number of Consultant Psychiatrists required to provide high quality, timely care and treatment to patients who need it.”
The IHCA has warned that the new national mental health policy ‘Sharing the Vision – a Mental Health Policy for Everyone’ has failed to address the critical staffing deficits in the mental health services that continue to result in significant access problems in the acute psychiatric services.
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