Cork mental health centre receives damning inspection report from Mental Health Commission

That prompted the body’s chief executive John Farrelly to suggest that lower standards are accepted in the field of adverse mental health compared with other care-based scenarios.

Two of the findings, regarding privacy standards and the standards of the building itself, were deemed to be at the critical end of non-compliance.

The privacy issues relate to an insufficient amount of space being made available within the two-bedded rooms located in the centre’s sub-acute unit with which to ensure residents’ “privacy and dignity”.

Meanwhile, the general standard of the centre’s upkeep was found to be greatly lacking, with mould observed on the ceiling and floors of showers, chipped paint found on doors, ceiling tiles missing, and floors badly stained and engrained with dirt.

In addition, the report found St Michael’s was “not free of inoffensive odours”, while ligature points, which could potentially be used for the purpose of suicide attempts, “had not been minimised”.

“A mental health unit should be a place for recovery, and a bright, clean space, with privacy for residents and open spaces for when they want to engage with people is absolutely necessary for each resident’s recovery,” Mr Farrelly said with regard to the report’s findings.

“When such spaces are not provided we are simply not meeting their needs and it strips them of their dignity. It seems to me we tolerate conditions in mental health services we would not tolerate elsewhere,” he said.

St Michael’s is one of nine mental health centres in the county. It has 50 beds and specialises in the faculties of acute adult mental health care and the psychiatry of later life. There are 65 such centres in the country.

Mr Farrelly said the staff at St Michael’s “put great effort and imagination into compensating for the environmental constraints” present in the centre.

However, he said “the fact remains not all residents had access to personal space within their bedrooms; there was no quiet space available to residents; there was no sitting room in the acute unit of the approved centre, but instead a lounge area with seating was actually situated in front of the nurse’s station”.

A further high-risk rating was given to the centre with regard to its staffing attributable to some workers having no documentation to demonstrate proficiency in fire safety, basic life support, the management of violence and aggression, and the 2001 Mental Health Act.

Of three mental health centres reviewed, St Michael’s was the only one to receive a critical risk rating.

Overall, the centre’s compliance levels fell by eight percentage points in the report, from 79% in 2018 to 71% 12 months later.

The other two centres reviewed, Highfield Hospital in north Dublin and An Coillin in Castlebar, Co Mayo, both increased their compliance percentages from previous years — with the latter receiving a final rating of 97%.

Centres in receipt of poor compliance reports are generally expected to compile a corrective and preventative action plan in order to address the reviewing body’s concerns.

Previously, St Michael’s approved registration had been subject to a condition applied by the Commission, a condition the centre was found to be in breach of at the time of inspection.