Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 14 July 2020
Special Committee on Covid-19 Response
Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Mental Health Services
David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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May I give an example of a unit in my constituency, the mental health unit in University Hospital Waterford?
There were a number of reports into that unit. One of them found it was not clean and there were overflowing bins and stains in some toilets. Patients reported sleeping on the floor in the unit. According to the Mental Health Commission, this year's report "once again demonstrates that the needs and wants of mental health service users are not being prioritised". I wish the position was better but when the commission is reporting that patients are being treated like second-class citizens, their human rights are being violated, there is no individual plan for many of the patients in centres and that in some centres patients with psychiatric needs and acute mental health difficulties are sleeping on the floor, that does not paint a rosy picture of mental health services. Is that not the case?