Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views that vulnerable patients continue to be housed in archaic psychiatric institutions in which they fail to get adequate care and treatment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10474/10]

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Our current model of mental health care is largely institutional based, and there are some 15 Victorian and older asylums still in use. However 'A Vision for Change' the Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy, provides a framework for action to develop a modern, high quality mental health service over a seven to ten year period and recommends that the remaining psychiatric hospitals should close and that patients should be relocated to more appropriate community based settings.

The mental health capital programme will provide the infrastructure necessary for the patient-centred, flexible community based service envisioned in 'A Vision for Change' and will facilitate the closure of the remaining hospitals. In this regard Budget 2010 provided for a multi-annual programme of capital investment to be funded from the proceeds of the sale of lands. In 2010 the HSE will dispose of surplus assets and reinvest an initial sum of €50 million in developing the new mental health infrastructure. Projects which will be progressed in 2010 include the development of an acute unit at Beaumont to replace the acute unit at of St Ita's Portrane, the construction of a Community Nursing Unit in Clonmel which will enable St Luke's Hospital to close later this year and the construction of a Community Nursing Unit in Mullingar to facilitate the closure of St Lomans's Hospital.