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Barriers to care in the mental health service: who gets in – who gets out?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Anne Doherty
Anne Doherty*
Affiliation:
Department of Adult Psychiatry, UCD/Mater University Hospital, Eccles St, Dublin 7, Ireland
*
*Correspondence E-mail: anne_m_doherty@hotmail.com
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Abstract

“People with mental health problems are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion” – Vision for Change.

People with mental health problems are very vulnerable. However those with mental health problems who have additional social problems are even more vulnerable.

Currently psychiatric services in Ireland are provided on a ‘catchment area’ basis, with a consultant psychiatrist leading a multi-disciplinary team providing a service to the population of a defined geographical area. These services comprise both outpatient and inpatient care, and there is significant regional variation in terms of both bed availability and multidisciplinary team staffing. Sub-specialities, with the exception of child psychiatry and psychiatry of old age, are often unavailable, particularly outside Dublin. In such cases, some additional duties (eg. liaison, rehabilitation, perinatal) are assumed by the local general adult services.

However, the overall distribution of services is uneven. Instead of services being concentrated upon those areas of greatest need, the opposite is often the case, with the most deprived areas having the least services in terms of acute beds and community mental health teams per thousand people. These areas also have less psychological services and specialist services despite increased levels of mental illness.

Within this vulnerable population there are a number of sub-groups who are even further marginalised, and for whom there are significant barriers both at point of contact with services and with accessing appropriate follow up services. These include the homeless, the ever-increasing cohort of migrants to this country, those in prison and children and adolescents. Stigma and discrimination are the greatest barriers to social inclusion, quality of life and recovery for people with mental illness.

Keywords

BarriersHomelessMigrantsPrisonersChildren and adolescentsResourcesCommunity Care
Type
Perspective
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 82 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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