Dr. Susan Finnerty:

I thank the Deputy for her question. We have been concerned for some time that we can only regulate approved centres. Looking at modern mental health services, it is clear that only a small proportion of people with mental illness go into the approved centres we are operating. We are very much aware that there is a considerable number of people living in residential units around the country. There are approximately 113 or 114 24-hour supervised residences, each with up to eight or nine people in them, which means there are approximately 1,200 people in 24-hour residential facilities. While they are not regulated, I can inspect them. We have been inspecting them within a reasonably regular timeframe and asking them to provide quality improvement plans. However, we would be quite concerned about some of the residential centres, their facilities, care planning and therapeutic activities and programmes. We very much welcome the fact that these centres will be regulated and we will have a set of regulations by which we can inspect and enforce action.

Community mental health services include community mental health teams and specialist teams, such as eating disorder teams or child and adolescent mental health services teams. Each of those teams will have aspects of mental health services attached to them, such as day hospitals, home-based treatment teams, day centres and so on. They form a very important part of a person's journey through the mental health services and it is important that those services are operating to the best standard. We welcome the fact that they will be regulated and will have to perform to a certain standard and if they do not, we can enforce action.