Mental Health

August 2010

Amnesty International Ireland is calling for the Government to consider using law to improve accountability for mental health expenditure and drive mental health reform. This discussion paper outlines why law is needed, and what it might look like, and has opened the topic for discussion.

July 2010

Amnesty International Ireland's pre budget submission to the Government outlines the organisation's key demands in relation to mental health spending and policy.

May 2010
The Government's mental health policy, A Vision for Change, was published in 2006 but implementation has been painfully slow. This report, commissioned by Amnesty International and written by Indecon Economic Consultants, outlines how effective indicators can provide solutions and really drive progress within the mental health system.

February 2010
Attaining the highest possible standard of mental health does not just mean a good health service. Access to housing, jobs, social support and employment are also crucially important. This report outlines why we need a whole of Government approach to mental health, and what departments outside of health should be doing.

March 2010
Amnesty International Ireland (AI) made a submission to the Minister for Health and Children on 4 March 2010. It sets out how the law should be changed to provide better human rights protection for people with mental health problems who may be given electro-convulsive therapy (ECT).

December 2009
The focus of this submission is on the Scheme as it relates to persons with mental health difficulties, and was informed by the research paper detailed below. AI strongly welcomes the Government’s decision to conduct this long over-due reform of existing legislation and the Government’s intention to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

December 2009
This research explored issues related to decision-making capacity and advance directives with people who have had personal experience of impaired capacity in the context of a mental health issue.

November 2009
The Independent Monitoring Group (IMG) of A Vision for Change produces a report annually analysing the progress of implementation of the policy. Ahead of the report’s 2010 publication AI submitted its comments to the IMG, looking at the lack of implementation of A Vision for Change in two key areas; the failure to deliver on the vision of comprehensive and community-based care and the failure to deliver social inclusion for people who have experienced a mental health problem.

November 2009
When AI launched the latest phase of its mental health campaign in June 2009 a key part of our campaign aims was that departments other than health set out specific, time-bound actions for implementation of the relevant recommendations under A Vision for Change. AI views the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment’s work as vital to achieving the human rights of people with mental health difficulties.

September 2009
A report examining spending on mental health by the HSE and assessing progress on the implementation of the mental health strategy, A Vision for Change