Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 29 May 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Developments in Mental Health Services: Discussion
Dr. Susan Finnerty:
That need not happen. That is the point. The preventable ones are the cardiovascular illnesses, heart disease and stroke. It is very easy to monitor this and pick up very early if people are showing signs of physical health problems like that. In the same way that we go to our doctor for our lipids, weight and so on, people who have serious mental illness and are on medication need to have the same. We found that in a small group of inpatients, this was not happening. We also found that access to essential healthcare, such as dietetics, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy, were not ether either.