Mental Health Reform (MHR), Ireland’s leading national coalition for mental health, has expressed concern following the publication of a new report from the Mental Health Commission which exposes serious gaps in emergency mental health services across the country.
According to the report, most Emergency Departments remain ill-equipped to respond adequately to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. It also highlights “substantial delays” in accessing mental health assessments, particularly during evenings and weekends, raising serious questions about the challenges for clinicians and their teams working in emergency mental health care in Ireland.
Responding to the findings, Philip Watt, interim CEO of Mental Health Reform, said:
“Mental Health Reform echoes the Mental Health Commission’s concerns about the high rates of people presenting to Emergency Departments for mental health support, settings that are often inappropriate for such care. Particularly troubling is the high number of children attending Pediatric Emergency Departments. This reflects inadequate out-of-hours services and under-resourced community mental health supports. These findings underline the further need for sustained and significant investment across the entire mental health sector to ensure accessible, high-quality care for all who need it”.
While mental health accounted for 13% of the overall health budget in 1984, in recent years it has stagnated at between 5% and 6%, falling well short of the Government’s own commitment to reach 10% by 2024.
Investment in mental health must be a priority for this government in Budget 2026, including in respect of the issues raised in this report.