The Mental Health Commission (MHC) has expressed concern about deficits in mental health services, with shortages of staff a major issue.

The MHC, in its latest annual report, says the progress made over recent years in improving mental health services in Ireland is in danger of coming to a standstill.

"While some service providers are making progress toward providing a truly modern mental health care service there are many others that are struggling. There are many contributing factors including resource constraints and an unwillingness in some parts of the service to do things differently," according to the Chairman of the Commission John Saunders.

The report shows that ore than 90% of approved mental healthcare centres comply fully in areas such as insurance, certificate of registration and food safety, while only 60% are compliant with regulations in relation to care plans and 44% are compliant with staffing levels.

"There is potential to make more progress but the resource constraints and in some cases reluctance to change are making progress more difficult. In some cases progress has ground to a halt. Service providers are under massive pressure to do more with less and the resultant budgeting and staffing issues are in danger of impacting basic services," said John Saunders.

The MHC noted that Ministerial Commitment to ensure that the expected €15 million not forthcoming in funding for the servicve this year would be reinstated in 2015.

However Mr Saunders said notwithstanding the shortfall, the MHC was disappointed with the delay in the filling of the required posts and urged the HSE to maximise the staffing of community mental health teams as new resources permit.

The MHC report, which includes the 2013 report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services, shows that there were nine conditions attached to the registration of eight mental health treatment centres in 2013, four relating to non-compliance with care planning, two with use of seclusion and restraint, one regarding patient transfer, one regarding staffing levels and one regarding suitable sleeping accommodation.

The MHC report says Levels of full compliance with the rules on patient seclusion remain very low. Only 33%
of approved centres met all the requirements of these rules in 2013.

Full compliance with the code of practice for mental health services on the notification of deaths and incident reporting increased from 74% in 2012 to 86% in 2013, according to the MHC.

In 2013, the Commission was notified of 91 admissions of children to adult mental helath treatment centres. It is against the code of practice under the Mental Health Act to admit under 18s to adult units.

In 2013, 47 approved centres notified the Commission of 156 deaths, including eight deaths where a person was recently discharged from an approved centre. The MHC said 14.7% of notifications related to sudden, unexplained deaths.

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