Fears over mental health service revamp in kells

Vulnerable psychiatric patients, who find the Climber Hall facility in Kells a familiar oasis of comfort, could be traumatised by the proposed reconfiguration of mental health day services in Kells, the Meath Care charity has warned.
Cllr Darren O’Rourke has called on the HSE to clarify the situation in relation to the proposed reconfiguration of services and the future of the Climber Hall facility.
He said the current service users of Climber Hall need to know what level of services will be provided if the proposed changes take place and asked if any consideration had been given to the transportation problems that would result if services were transferred to Navan.
Brian Curran, chairman of Meath Care, said there was fear among users of the facility that many of the services provided there would be moved to Navan. “Climber Hall has been an oasis of support to people with psychiatric difficulties from Kells and surrounding areas and to take away something that offers them stability will have serious consequences,” he said.
“The changes and uncertainty are causing increased stresses,” he said. “We are talking about the most vulnerable groups in society. The service at Climber Hall is working well and up to 20 people a day, five days a week, are using the services,” he added.
He said if servvices are transferred to Navan or Drogheda, the expense of travelling to those towns could prevent people from accessing the services.
Cllr O’Rourke said the HSE had told him that both Kells and Trim psychiatric services are possibly going to be working and providing services from a sector headquarters (in Navan) with an attached day hospital.
“They further confirmed that it is their vision to continue to provide modern community-based services to Kells from the new primary care centre in the town and that no decision has yet been made regarding the future use of Climber Hall,” he added.
A spokesperson for the HSE said the Louth Meath Mental Health Service is exploring all options for the location of sector headquarters and day hospitals to best serve the proposed catchment population.  
“Over the past two years, many new multi-disciplinary staff have been allocated to the community mental health teams. Staff include social workers, psychologists and occupational therapists.
She said it was proposed to continue to provide modern community-based services to Kells from the new Kells Primary Care Centre. “With regard to the future use of the day service in Climber Hall, no decision has yet been made; however, discussions with senior clinicians is ongoing,” she added.