‘Behind each statistic is a son or daughter, a friend, a colleague’... lack of out of hours mental health services blasted
The lack of mental health services out of hours in hospital emergency departments prompted one local county councillor to request Meath County Council to write to the Minister of Health requesting adequate resourcing for mental health services for EDs in Our Lady's Hospital Navan and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Cllr Noel French said large numbers attended the recent Darkness into Light walk, which began at 4am, but if you turned up at a hospital A&E at that time contemplating suicide, in most hospitals you would receive little or no service.
“In the last year, an estimated €51,000 people presented at emergency departments and medical wards in Ireland each year with a first-time acute mental health issue. Each year in Ireland, around 500 people die by suicide. These aren’t just numbers - behind each statistic is a son or daughter, a friend, a grandparent, a
colleague.”
“People who are suicidal are not suicidal 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday. They are far more likely to be in the dark hours before dawn or at weekends considering taking their lives. This is no reflection on hospitals and their staff. It is the Department of Health's failure to adequately fund after hours services,” said Cllr French.
His motion calling on Meath County Council to write to the Minister for Health requesting adequate resources for after hours mental health services in the emergency departments of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda and Our Lady’s Hospital Navan was passed.
He also stated that there is no record of those who present with mental health difficulties recorded in Navan hospital and that the same is said for Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda.
While Drogheda hospital has a psychiatric department, he said their emergency department in regards to mental health has been described by staff as a ‘revolving door’ of patients who present again and again because they are not getting the adequate services.