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Interaction of forensic and general psychiatric services in Ireland: learning the lessons or repeating the mistakes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Conor O'Neill ,
Hamish Sinclair ,
Alan Kelly  and
Harry Kennedy
Conor O'Neill
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Ireland
Hamish Sinclair
Affiliation:
Small Area Health Research Unit, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Alan Kelly
Affiliation:
Small Area Health Research Unit, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Harry Kennedy
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Ireland
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Abstract

Objective: General psychiatric bed numbers in Ireland have reduced markedly in recent decades. In other jurisdictions such reductions have been accompanied by increases in the prevalence rates of severe mental illness among prisoners. We examined variations in per capita provision of local psychiatric beds and community residential places in Ireland for associations with forensic psychiatric service utilisation.

Method: All admissions via the courts and prisons to the national forensic psychiatry service during the years 1997-1999 were assigned to the appropriate health board. Forensic admission and bed utilisation rates were compared with measures of general psychiatric service provision.

Results: There were 476 admissions via the criminal justice system during the study period (0.74% of all psychiatric admissions in Ireland). A disproportionate number came from the most urbanised area. There were fivefold differences in overall bed and hostel place allocation between Irish health boards. Combined general psychiatric beds were inversely correlated with forensic bed utilisation (Spearman r = -0.75, p = 0.013). These differences showed a strong inverse correlation with forensic service utilisation.

Conclusions: General psychiatric services are relatively under-resourced in areas of greatest predicted need in Ireland. This is associated with increased use of forensic psychiatric services and may reflect accumulation of the mentally ill in Irish prisons.

Keywords

Forensic PsychiatryCommunity ServicesPrisons
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2002 , pp. 48 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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