The absence of an appropriate unit in the State for medium-term secure detention of women with serious mental health difficulties, but not so severe as to warrant detention in the Central Mental Hospital, has been highlighted in a High Court case.
The president of the High Court was dealing with the case of a woman, a ward of court with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. She has been involuntarily detained under court orders for more than four years, in the acute admissions unit of a psychiatric hospital.
A consultant psychiatrist involved in the woman’s treatment agreed the admissions unit – a mixed ward where agitated, intoxicated and disturbed persons are occasionally treated – is not appropriate for the woman.
There is no other appropriate facility, she told Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns.
The court heard the woman, who has had psychiatric hospital admissions since the mid 1980s, is permitted leave unaccompanied for up to two hours twice weekly but must be accompanied by family or staff any other time.
The psychiatrist said it was her opinion the woman met the criteria for detention under the Mental Health Acts.
Her view was the woman’s condition deteriorated in recent months and she would be unable to cope living outside the hospital, for reasons including that she had little insight into her illness and was paranoid, vulnerable and at risk of self-neglect.
The judge agreed to continue an order detaining the woman, who was in court, in the acute admissions unit for another six months.
