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THERE ARE JUST 40 Authorised Officers (AO) providing a service in Ireland.
Under the Section 9 of the Mental Health Act 2001 an Authorised Officer (AO) is a staff member of the mental health services who is authorised to make an application to a registered medical practitioner for the involuntary admission of an adult to hospital.
The expert group that is reviewing the mental health legislation stated in their interim report that there had been complaints that there is a shortage of qualified AOs, which is impacting on the provision of mental health services nationally.
The role of the AO has been sparingly used since the enactment of the Mental Health Act. The majority of applications for admission are made by the family of the person or the gardai.
The Mental Health Commission’s analysis of the categories of persons who applied for a recommendation for a person to be involuntarily admitted showed that in 2012, just 8 per cent were made by AOs. The figure has stayed around that percentile for some years.
There were 901 cases or 57 per cent in which the family applied to have a loved one involuntarily admitted. Applications for admission made by the gardai was 22 per cent.
At the outset of the Mental Health 2001, it was envisaged that the AO would play a central role in the application and admission of a person with a mental disorder to hospital. An AO was to be from a mental health background and would be brought in when a situation arose.
The idea is they would be tasked with giving information about alternative options and work with the family, GP and gardai if needed, in doing something other than hospitalising the person, but if in the end there is no alternative, it would be the AO and not the family that would make the application to admit the person on an involuntary basis.
A review of the Mental Health Act undertaken by the Department of Health in 2007 stated that 80 authorised officers had been provided with training. The report also highlighted concerns about the availability of AOs outside normal office hours and stated that the “HSE is working to develop a comprehensive authorised officer service”.
Five years on from that review, the expert group cited the same concerns adding that from the outset it was envisaged AOs would operate a seven day service.
According to the HSE, today there are just 40 Authorised Officers providing a service. A statement from the HSE said:
In the interests of providing a more comprehensive AO service a review of the current service was completed in late 2012.It was agreed to roll out the service initially Monday to Friday between 8am and 8pm as the review indicated that majority of AO requests occurred within these times.
They added that following the review last year, new training programmes for Authorised Officers are scheduled, with AO training for mental health service staff in HSE West commencing a few weeks ago.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, a HSE spokesperson confirmed that there are to be 75 additional AOs trained, with the target of having 115 AOs in service by the end of the year. The HSE could not provide a further breakdown as to where the AOs are situated in the country.
NUI Galway law lecturer Mary Keys said the idea of the AO was that every area would have a designated independent officer. While she welcomed training was underway, she said for a long time the HSE was “struggling”.
She added: “Families do not want to make an application to have their child, their wife or husband detained – but sometimes it is for the best. But how are they meant to move on after that – the trust is gone. Often there is blame there, as they are there at their request,” she said.
Grainne Humphrys has spent many years campaigning for an improved mental health system in Ireland. Her partner, John Hunt, who she has a son with, has been in the mental health services just under a decade. She is not only critical about his treatment, but also about the lack of communication and the overall admission process.
She said:
I am very critical about how his admission was dealt with – it was with the use of force and coercion. He didn’t want to take the medication at the time of his admission and I thought, fair enough. I couldn’t understand why there was not a better method of communication that we could use with him, like open dialogue.
Dr Shari McDaid, policy officer for Mental Health Reform said that the most recent figures showing that AOs account for just 8 per cent of admissions initiated was not impressive.
“When you consider that they were originally meant to play a key role in the new act, those statistics are very low indeed. Their whole role was aimed at lessening the involvement of families in the admission process, as family members are often the ones who are involved in getting a loved one admitted and it can be very distressing. The percentage of 8 per cent is a very low number in terms of all applications,” she said.
She added that the AOs are not just about a different role for applications, but they can in some cases help diffuse a situation and transform a situation that might have ended up as an involuntary admission.
“If you think there were about 1500 involuntary admissions last year, and about 120 of those were by AOs, and if the HSE state there are just 40 AOs in Ireland, that means each officer is only initiating about 3 per year, which hardly is worth their role at all,” she said.
It is believed that the expert group who is reviewing the mental health legislation might be looking to expand the role of the AO where all applications for involuntary admissions are to be made by them. However, in reality, due to the constraints of resources this might not be feasible.
This article was written with the support of the Mary Raftery Journalism Fund. To find out more about the fund, please visit www.maryrafteryfund.ie or follow @maryrafteryfund on Twitter.
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It’s definitely because they are afraid of women. Educated women are a major threat to their agenda. It’s so sad and so vile for those girls. I hope they can find a way around it.
@Anna Carr: no, it’s to prevent earthquakes. Everyone knows that earthquakes are caused by women wearing jeans, and many women in universities wear jeans. So, for our safety, it is necessary that women do not go to universities.
@John Mulligan: lol
@Anna Carr: “It’s definitely because they are afraid of women. Educated women are a major threat to their agenda.”
They don’t fear women, they view them as property and an educated woman can be easily silenced with a bullet. The only way out of this is to leave/escape or rebel en masse.
@Will: It’s definitely because they are afraid of women but they aren’t? Jaysus Will stick to calling people tarts.I do agree as regards internal uprising though. The bloodshed that entails is horrific though.
I find it absolutely incredible that such a society can still be allowed to exist in these times. What is the point of the UN? Certainly not to go where needed, unless there’s a political agenda as opposed to a human rights one.
I despair for the future of humanity as it would appear that we are the architect’s of our own extinction.
@John Mulligan: THe UN does not have the authority to go into a country and initiate regime change, just because we don’t like the method of government there (regardless of how evil and nasty it is)- that’s why countries find excuses like WMDs to go in and invade a country… Foreign governments have been attempting to put their own stamp on that country for the last few hundred years and all they have suceeded in doing is making it a lawless basket case.
@John Mulligan: ‘Allowed’ ?
@Keth Warsaw: Yes . Nobody wants these dystopian societies to continue their abuse of their own people. I think you strayed in here Keth you product of western culture unable to string a sentence together.
Women are being pushed out of Government jobs in Afghanistan..
Sounds like Ireland up to the 1980s when once a woman got married she was forced to resign from any Government job .
But we are so quick now to condemn less advanced countries.
@Roger Bond: and so we should be. Are you saying that they shouldn’t be condemned? And are sure they’re not advanced but rather led by religious fervour?
@Roger Bond: Oh shut up you tart!
@Roger Bond: ah sure tis grand so they are “less advanced” than us.
@Roger Bond: But, interestingly, while the law said she had to resign, she could also reapply for the vacant position! Married women could apply for positions. An odd loophole.
@Roger Bond: And so we should be. Condemn the bejayus out of them of them on the world stage. Show these women they have support. It will mean little as they will suffer but something nonetheless.
@Will: Yeah Roger you tart put a sock in it. Unusual way of putting it Will but I’m all for it. Roger you know what you are.
Some might ask ‘Who or what is western culture to suggest change in foreign cultures…such changes that might initially be justified, but which might have deeply changing effects in decades to come upon said foreign cultures?’ And yet, there are others that decry the loss of other cultures: the Red Indians, Aztecs, Aborigini’s etc. Is it correct for western culture to pick and choose what is right and wrong within another culture while defending ‘to the hilt’ any and all criticism by a exterior forces upon its own way of life, however detrimental the the effects (some of) the wests culture has had upon the planet et all.
@Keth Warsaw: Enough of this false equivalence and whataboutery. There has to be some things we can agree on as human beings.
Women are not property.
Homosexuals are not criminals.
Your religion doesn’t give you the right to abuse others who don’t share your beliefs.
If you agree with the three points above then you must condemn the Taliban.
Also, you talk of culture but that’s not what this is. Afghanistan was one of the most liberal countries in the near east until the 80′s and the Soviet invasion. The Taliban are destroying Afghani culture, not protecting it.
@Will: I’m not invested in any foreign culture. I’m a product of the west. But that said, I am interested in where the line of trying to change/westernise foreign cultures starts and stops.
@Will: I would suggest you don’t have the right to say to another, me, ‘Enough’. If I may remind you, we both live in the free west where open discussion is, ideally, permitted. Correct me if I am wrong?
@Keth Warsaw: Red Indians Jaysus. Have you escaped from the seventies? So if people are (usually women let’s be honest )are struggling against oppression we shouldn’t support them in any way we can. The “west’s culture” leaves a lot to be desired but most of us want to make it better and to not to throw people off buildings because of who they love.
@Keth Warsaw: You primarily Keth are a product of your own warped mind. You have absolutely nothing to offer other than your warped views. The only thing that really interests you is shoehorning some archaic fantasy of yours into modern Irish society. Nobody is buying what you have to sell. On your bike Keth
@Keth Warsaw: Doesn’t seem likely Keth . You are here with an agenda. Unfortunately you were at the back of queue at some point. I’m sure it’s not your fault I mean someone took advantage of you. I mean maybe they did or you are cackhandedly trying to further your own aims . Blimey Keth it’s like mystery mixed with an enigma. So Keth you seem to have run away. I would be really upset if you thought I had drawn attention to your pulsillanimist nature (ahem) in no way was that my intention.
@Daftbit Jelly: All the best for your future endeavours. Not being critical but you need vocabulary if you are doing the whole raised in western culture thing. Also the whole birthrate thing . Nobody cares. All right maybe statisticians or Issac Assimov ( no he’s dead) Shitë he wasn’t very nice apparently. A bit like you Keth with the women thing.
Not my words, but there are those who would suggest that the drop in western population, resulting in an aging population, and the need for foreign importation of peoples willing to contribute to western population numbers for the safe upkeep of government coffers is the result of western women choosing a career over having children at a safe age that guarantees healthy children, and a sustainable number of them. Unfortunately, we cannot eat our cake and have it to.
@Keth Warsaw: Certainly we can. We do in Ireland where we have a relatively higher younger population. Besides, your stats are out of date – plenty of women chose to have children during the pandemic, and worldwide, people had less stressful pregnancies and far fewer stillbirths because of increased flexibility. Credit where it’s due to companies that facilitated their working from home. Our government’s job is to ensure that they all have equal rights, avoid the poverty trap and don’t regret choosing to have children. Incidentally, when did you last bake a cake for anyone : – P
@Fiona Fitzgerald: By the very mature of it, I don’t think you can generally, sorry. If so, why are western birth rates falling?
Yep/cook. Sunday. Apple tart, friends.
@Keth Warsaw: Meant to say ‘nature’….but I think ‘mature’ will suffice.
@Keth Warsaw: I’m thinking you might be a Barbarian Keth. I’m thinking you might be wanting women barefoot and pregnant and presumably cooking your dinner. You are obsolete Keth past your sell by date.
@Keth Warsaw: Two unrelated words Keth. You being a product of ” western society” I believe given your ability to talk shïte.
@Keth Warsaw: So western birth rates are your main concern Keth? Really?
@Daftbit Jelly: I respectfully disagree Sir. Again, and for the records of futurity, I have no investment in this main subject, but only in examining the claw-like tendrals that the west craves in spreading. Should the headhunters of some distant forest in a far-off region of thus sphere be pulled up and corrected for such ‘deemed’ savagery, or should we let them be and value them as a cultural tidbit?
@Daftbit Jelly: You’re a bounder sir. You, who uses the word ‘daft’ within your moniker. I should add, the robots now inform me that using your name may be perceived as toxic. The humanity!
@Daftbit Jelly: western birthrate my main concern? No. The splicing of the atom and the invention of a device capable of increasing time ratio whilst able to float via anti-gravity pendulums is my main concern. That, and pudding….
@Keth Warsaw – (sorry the reply feature doesn’t seem to work for me)
All this talk about culture is moot in this case. Yes, we in the west have no right to dictate what women of Afghanistan can and can’t do.
If an Afghan woman wants to wear a burqa or stay home from college or whatever in the name of preserving her culture, fine. No one is saying she shouldn’t be allowed. The problem here is *they don’t have the option*. These people *want* to work, to go to school, college, public parks, etc.
The question of whether we have a right to think they should follow our culture goes out the window – (or maybe even works in our favour) when their oppressive culture is being forced upon them at gunpoint!
It’s not about the specific traditions, it’s about them having the choice.
have your say