Highest number of long stay patients in psychiatric services at St Brigid's

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Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 10 January 2007

St Brigid's Hospital, Ballinasloe, has the highest number of long-stay patients in psychiatric services throughout Ireland, with 96 people resident for 25 years or longer.

According to the recent Irish Psychiatric Units and Hospitals Census, 26 people were in the hospital for 10 to 25 years at the end of 2006, which is the joint second highest number nationwide. Eleven patients were at St Brigid's for five to ten years, while 22 patients have been residents for one to five years.

The majority of patients at the Ballinasloe hospital, (91), presented with schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders, 13 each with organic mental disorders and intellectual disability, 11 with depressive disorders, 12 with neuroses, 11 with depressive disorders, nine with alcoholic disorders, five with mania, three with personality and behavioural disorders and one each with other drug disorders and emotional disorders of childhood and adolescence. Ninety-six patients at St Brigid's were aged 65 years and over, 43 were aged 45 to 64 years, 19 were aged 20 to 44 years and one patient was under 20 years.

Meanwhile, at University College Hospital Galway, 14 patients had stays of under one week, nine stayed one to three months, five patients each had stays of one to two weeks and two to four weeks respectively and three patients had stays of one to five years. There were three patients at the Galway City hospital aged 65 years and over, 11 aged 45 to 64 years, 22 aged 20 to 44 years and one under 20 years.

HSE West had 20,938 in-patient days, while there were 569 voluntary patients in the HSE West's psychiatric services and 129 non-voluntary patients. The HSE West had the lowest rate of hospitalisations at 96.4 per cent per 100,000 of the population. Males meanwhile had a higher hospitalisation rate than females in the HSE West with a percentage of 109.6 per 100,000.

Single patients had the highest rate of hospitalisations for all marital status groups in all HSE areas, while divorced persons had the second highest rate in HSE West at 112.2 per cent. In the HSE West area, unskilled workers had the highest rate of hospitalisations at 261 per cent.

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