This article is from page 4 of the 2008-06-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CLARE is the only county where there are not enough places in 24- hour staffed community residences to cater for the number of people in need of the service.
According to the report of the In- spector of Mental Health Services, there were 63 people living in the 58 residental places available through- out the county.
The report also showed that three
posts approved for adult mental health services in Clare fell victim of the HSE recruitment freeze in 2007.
According to the Inspector of Men- tal Health Services, additional fund- ing was allocated for the posts last year but the jobs fell to the recruit- ment embargo.
“The Clare Mental Health Service has been proactive in developing a community-based model of care over the five years since the closure of Our Lady’s hospital,” the inspector said.
“It faces considerable challenges in reconfiguring existing nursing resources, introducing health care assistants and accessing funding to achieve appropriate staffing levels on all teams.
“There was a serious deficit in meeting the needs of residents with an intellectual disability who were resident in 24-hour nurse-staffed ac- commodation.
Despite the Health Commission recommending that adequate re-
sources should be put in place in the community to enable service users have bloods taken for clozaril moni- toring, this has still not happened.
They must instead travel to the psy- chiatric unit in Ennis.
The report also showed that while the psychiatric unit at Ennis General Hospital was complying with the ma- jority of the regulations set down in the Mental Health Act 2001, it fell short of having written policies in a number of areas.
The situation was similar for Or- chard Grove in Ennis, which provides intense rehabilitation and accommo- dation for 10 men with “complex and challenging needs”.
Within the psychiatric Unit at Ennis General Hospital, the inspector was critical of the fact that ventilation in the seclusion room was inadequate.
Four clinical files of detained pa- tients authorised for seclusion were reviewed by the Inspectorate and, in some cases, part of the seclusion reg- ister was not completed.
It has since been reported that this matter has been addressed.
‘No record of the patient’s next of kin being notified or reasons for not notifying next of kin was document- ed in the clinical files,’ the report Crate