Mentally ill travel to UK for rehabilitation

The Government is spending millions of euro sending severely mentally ill patients to the UK for rehabilitation due to a lack of facilities in Ireland, a number of psychiatrists have said.
The authors of a report into rehabilitation services available for people with learning disabilities who commit crimes have criticised the severe lack of such services in Ireland, and revealed that of the 70-100 patients in this group nationally, 21 per cent are currently sent abroad, mostly to the UK, for treatment.

The Irish College of General Practitioners report, called ‘People with learning disability who offend’, highlights the lack of progress made in implementing the Government’s mental health strategy, A Vision for Change, and urgently recommends that the HSE develop a “strategic commitment” to develop services.
Dr Peter Leonard, Senior Registrar in Learning Disability Psychiatry at St John of God Kildare Services and member of the College’s Forensic Learning Disability Psychiatry Working Group, said that an “astronomical” amount of money is being spent on treating people abroad.
“It really is a disgrace that so many patients are sent to the UK to manage a problem we should be dealing with here,” said Dr Leonard.Prof Harry Kennedy, Director of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, said that about a €250,000 is spent on each patient treating them out of State.
“We’re not even sure how many there are because the HSE doesn’t collect the number of people with learning disabilities,” said Prof Kennedy. The report into those with learning disabilities who offend states: “The HSE must cease sending patients out of Ireland for specialist forensic learning disability services and instead commit funding to the development of an Irish service.”