“No Room at the Inn”- a discussion on access to mental health services for people in crisis, hosted by Mental Health Reform.
Time and time again, Mental Health Reform hears from people all across the country of the difficulty getting access to mental health services when they or their loved one is in a crisis. Usually their only option is to wait in A&E. For people in mental or emotional distress, waiting in A&E can exacerbate their distress, as these people have told us:
“Last time I was in A&E I was there for hours and started getting paranoid.”
“A&E is not appropriate”. “We need a system to bypass A&E”.
(contributors to Mental Health Reform’s public meetings, 2013)
Professor Kevin Malone’s recent study on families affected by suicide between 2003 and 2008 found that family members were dissatisfied with statutory services before and after a suicide death, with 66% of those who experienced such services reporting them as “negative or very negative”.
A Vision for Change, the Government mental health policy, calls for the provision of “24/7 multidisciplinary crisis intervention”. This panel will discuss how we get there and what this type of 24/7 service could look like.
Chair: Marian Finucane, broadcaster.
Panel:
June Shannon, Journalist, Irish Medical News
Marie Duffy, Mental health blogger and advocate
Dr. Pat Gibbons, Kildare/West Wicklow Mental Health Service,
Followed by Q&A and discussion.
Venue: Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8.
Free entry. RSVP to info@mentalhealthreform.combinedmedia.com
