Cork TD welcomes consultation on mental-health services for people with intellectual disabilities

A new consultation to inform mental-health services for people with intellectual disabilities has been welcomed by a Cork TD.

Social Democrats TD for Cork East Liam Quaide, a former clinical psychologist, told The Echo earlier this month: “It is a national scandal that some people with an intellectual disability end up languishing in psychiatric wards, due to a lack of specialist residential services.”

The Mental Health Commission (MHC) has launched a new public consultation to gather views, insights, experiences, and suggestions to help develop new guidance tailored for providers of mental-health services to people with intellectual disabilities.

The guidance document will apply to providers in all mental-health services, including inpatient, community residence, and community mental-health services.

Mr Quaide told The Echo: “This consultation process is very welcome. 

“People with co-existing intellectual disability and mental-health difficulties are particularly at risk of poor outcomes, when they are admitted to psychiatric wards, where staff training and the setting itself are not adapted to their needs.

“They are a small cohort of our overall service-user population, but, in some cases, they can become stranded in acute or long-stay wards for many months, because there is not a specialist residential service available to them.”

The aim of the MHC consultation is to identify important areas that the new guidance should cover, address challenges faced by people with intellectual disabilities, and to help service providers adhere to evidence-based best practices.

The guidance will aim to ensure that staff members in services across the country have access to current and up-to-date views, evidence, and best practices that will help them to ensure that they are providing the best person-centre support that they can for people with intellectual disabilities.

The MHC said: “We would like to hear from all interested parties as part of the consultation, but particularly from people with an intellectual disability who have experience of using mental-health services in Ireland; and those close to them, such as family members or carers.

“We also welcome the views of mental-health professionals or other persons who have particular expertise in providing mental-health care to people with intellectual disabilities.” 

The public consultation can be found on the MHC website, www.mhcirl.ie.