THE SAFETY OF over 1,200 people living in 24-hour supervised mental health centres is “at-risk” unless the residences are regulated, the Mental Health Commission has warned. 

An inspection report by the Mental Health Commission has found there has been only “minimal progress” to address the most basic of human rights for 1,200 of the “country’s most vulnerable people” over the last 14 years.

Fianna Fáil spokesperson on mental health James Browne said the findings of the report were disturbing, but “unfortunately not surprising”.

“It is completely unacceptable that residences providing care for vulnerable people are allowed to operate without regulations in this day and age.

“In fact, given some of the horrific cases of abuse in care facilities uncovered in Ireland, I find it shocking that any Minister would allow care facilities go unregulated. It appears as if he has failed to learn the lessons from previous scandals,” he said. 

Dr Susan Finnerty told Morning Ireland that it was important to note that these residences are not regulated at the moment.

“That means while I can go in and inspect, I can’t actually enforce an action,” she said.  

“Despite the Mental Health Commission highlighting the lack of regulation for many years, this has not been addressed and it remains a critical risk for residents.” 

‘Trapped in the system’

The report found there were continuing breaches of human rights:

• the right to privacy
• the right to a clean well maintained accommodation
• the rights of service users to choose where they would like to live
• the right to independent living with appropriate supports
• the right to access appropriate care and treatment through access to rehabilitation and recovery services.

“There are over 1,200 vulnerable people living in 24-hour supervised residences. I cannot stress enough the need for these residences to be regulated to protect the safety of people who live in them,” Finnerty said. 

Regulation would allow the Mental Health Commission to enforce changes where deficits and risks are found, protect the human rights of people living in these residences and help mental health services to provide care and treatment in accordance with best-practice standards.

According to Finnerty, who authored the report, people are getting trapped in the system due to the lack of rehabilitation services. 

“Needs assessments indicate that if the appropriate resources were in place, many could move to smaller more independent accommodation but this is not happening, due in part to lack of appropriate housing, not enough rehabilitation teams and inadequate staffing of rehabilitation teams,” 

“What has happened is people have been moved into these residences, and while there are some rehabilitation teams around the country, they are poorly staffed and not able to provide rehabilitation for people so they can move onto more independent living.

Some people will always need to have highly supported accommodation but there is certainly a significant cohort of people who could move onto more independent living.

“Unfortunately that stock of housing for people and suitable support is not available. It is difficult to find housing for people,” she said.