News from: media

August 8, 2008

Headline News Highlights (1st-8th August 2008)

Health Service

'Hospitals should be licensed' - report
Irish Health (Thu, 7 Aug 2008)
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities in Ireland should be licensed to improve patient safety, a major new report has recommended.  According to the report of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance, the Irish health system has experienced a number of benefits in recent years, including significant investment, the recruitment of highly trained professionals and the provision of new technologies.

Mental Health Service

Officials fail to attend meeting on mental hospital
Irish Examiner (Thu, 7 Aug 2008)
The Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) have been criticised for their, failure to attend what was described as an urgent meeting to discuss the relocation of patients from the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) to a high-security prison site at Thornton Hall.  Health authorities said they could not attend the meeting held by the all-party Oireachtas committee on health because the relevant officials are not available at this time of year. 

HSE to prioritise mental health services
Irish Examiner (Wed, 6 Aug 2008)
The HSE has decided to prioritise the child and adolescent mental health services and is in the process of recruiting 12 consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists.  In addition, the HSE announced it was engaged in a recruitment process for 140 posts in the therapeutic areas, including occupation- al therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists.  "The addition of all these new posts will enhance disability and child and adolescent mental health services right across the country," said a spokesperson.

Psychiatry waiting lists ‘a scandal’
Sunday Business Post (Sun, 3 Aug 2008)
The Mental Health Act 2001 has led to improvements in protecting the rights of those involuntarily admitted for psychiatric treatment, according to a report issued by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) last week.  But the chairman of the MHC, Dr Edmond O’Dea, said that while progress had been encouraging, additional improvements were needed in a number of areas.

Eating disorders places non-existent
Cork Independent (Thu, 31 Jul 2008)
Cork is falling short when it comes to dealing with eating disorders as there are currently no public beds to deal with the problem. In fact there are only three public hospital beds for eating disorders in the whole country and they are all located in Dublin.  The government promised to deal with the issue over two years ago when it published the Vision for Change report in 2006

Mental Health

Read yourself well
Evening Herald (Mon, 4 Aug 2008)
Grace Wynne- Jones discovers that there is an easy way to get the self-help assistance you may be looking for over the years

Schizophrenia

New TCD schizophrenia breakthrough
Irish Medical Times (Thu, 7 Aug 2008)
Irish researchers have played a key role in developing new information on understanding schizophrenia. People living with schizophrenia are far more likely to carry rare chromosomal structural changes of all types, particularly those that have the potential to alter gene function, according to the research involving scientists at Trinity College Dublin.

Oestrogen may relieve psychotic symptoms
Irish Health (Tue, 5 Aug 2008)
The major form of oestrogen found in humans, oestradiol, appears to be a useful treatment in women with schizophrenia when combined with antipsychotic medication, an Australian report has indicated.3

Depression

Depression ups cancer death risk
Irish Health (Tue, 5 Aug 2008)
Patients with advanced cancer die sooner than they should if they are depressed, the results of a new study indicate. According to UK researchers, depression is common in patients with advanced cancer and for many, it is persistent.

Comments

Post a comment