More psychologists needed in system

There is too much dependence on medication to treat psychological illnesses, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health has been told.
The Irish Association of Psychologists in Mental Health called instead for more psychologists to be appointed to the health service, which it argued has a deficiency of such professionals. Dr Eoin Galavan informed the Committee’s members: “The experience of service users is that presentations are predominantly treated using a biological or medical model, with little regard for the social or psychological.”

His analysis of the over-concentration on medication to treat psychiatric illness was supported by his colleague, Dr Adam Meiselman. He said: “Medicine is a palliative treatment in mental health, it is not curative… You are reducing the symptoms, you are not actually reducing the problems.”
He continued: “A lot of people are maintained on medicine for 10, 20 and 30 years… In some cases, medicine is not even an option for particular disorders.” He singled out anxiety disorders and trauma-related illnesses as examples.
The group said there were not enough psychologists in multi-disciplinary teams, at primary care level or in institutions.
Dr Galavan said while there are 80 psychologists in the health service to treat adults, there should actually be 156 such professionals, and even that would only provide a skeletal service. In addition, he said that while there are 50 psychologists who treat children, there should actually be 150 for a minimum level of service to be provided.