Junior Minister joins the chorus to stall closure of Ballinasloe’s psychiatric facility

A Minister of State has called for the threatened closure of a brand new €2.8 million mental health unit in Ballinasloe to be put on hold until adequate community based services are put in place throughout East Galway.

The planned closure of the 22-bed acute mental health unit has caused uproar in the area since it was revealed two weeks ago and has prompted Junior Minister Ciaran Cannon to call on HSE West to reconsider the decision.

His questioning of the proposed closure comes a week after it was revealed that ten senior managers in East Galway had written to the National Director of Mental Health Services in Dublin to seek an urgent external review of the decision.

The proposed closure of the new Ballinasloe unit before the end of the year will be the subject of a public meeting which is expected to attract a huge crowd to Gullane’s Hotel in the town next Monday night (8pm).

Minister Cannon said he had received assurances at a meeting at the start of this month that acute bed closures would occur over a lengthy period of time, on a phased basis, as additional community services came on stream.

He had been assured following a meeting with Dr John Owens, former Chair of the Mental Health Commission, that the national ‘A Vision for Change’ policy document would see a fundamental change in focus from hospital based care into the community and family homes in Galway and Roscommon just two weeks ago.

But trade unions have disputed how quickly ‘A Vision for Change’ can be implemented in East Galway, given that it took over a decade for the treatment model in Cavan-Monaghan – which is now seen as the role model for this region – to be implemented.

Minster Cannon said the mental health services team was “already moving in this direction” and had achieved a very significant reduction in the number of acute beds in the area over the past decade.

“However, I now learn that the HSE intends to close not some, but all of the acute beds in St. Brigid’s before this Christmas. Additionally, I am aware that some community based services have recently ceased and other facilities are earmarked for closure,” he told the Connacht Tribune this week.

“There is no way that the fundamental restructuring and reform of our local mental health services can be delivered on this basis before the end of the year. The decision to close all the acute inpatient beds at St. Brigid’s is premature.

“It is impossible in that short time frame to put in place all of the community based services and a strong GP network which could lead to a reduction in the need for acute beds. The process of change in Cavan-Monaghan took a number of years, not weeks.”

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.