The Mental Health Commission has said delays in filling mental health staff posts could lead to a reduction in standards of care.

While €35 million was provided to fill 414 posts to strengthen community mental health services in 2012, the Commission said it was disappointed that under a third of these posts had been filled by the end of the year.

"We understand that most of the 2012 posts have now been filled, but this means we are still far behind on recruiting the 2013 posts for which financial allocation has been made", according to the Commission’s Chairman, John Saunders. 

"There is a real danger that standards of care will fall unless these posts are filled promptly. We welcome the fact that the 2012 allocation seems to have been preserved, but we will only make progress towards getting badly needed community services when this is added to the €35 million allocated for this year, giving €70 million by the end of 2013."

According to the Commission's latest annual report, it attached conditions to the continued registration of nine treatment centres due to deficiencies in care discovered following inspections.

In six cases, the condition imposed was an insistence on the use of multidisciplinary care plans, which are required for all service users.

The Lakeview Unit at Naas Hospital was ordered to increase its number of showers and to comply fully with rules on the use of seclusion and mechanical means of bodily restraint.

St Finan's Hospital in Killarney was ordered to close one of its wards.

The Commission, which runs the inspection regime for mental health services, welcomed the considerable progress over the past three years towards ending the use of outdated and unsuitable buildings to provide inpatient services.

There were 1,352 beds in older approved mental health treatment centres at the end of 2009 while there were 394 at the start of 2013.

"However this will only work to the benefit of patients if appropriate community services are developed to replace these inpatient beds," according to Commission Chairman John Saunders.

The Commission says it is concerned that electo-convulsive therapy (ECT) continues to be administered in cases where the patient is unwilling or unable to give consent.

In his report on 2012, the Inspector of Mental Health Services points to insufficient attention to governance, problems with the number and variety of staffing, inadequate understanding of the values underpinning mental health legislation and policy, and a weak conceptual grasp of individual care planning.