An acute ward at St Stephen’s Psychiatric Hospital in Glanmire (known locally as ‘Sarsfields Court’), is to close by the end of the year. The ward is being reduced by nine beds at the end of the month.

The move greatly worries Mitchelstown mother Amanda Donegan, whose 26-year-old son Joseph suffers from schizophrenia. He’s been treated in the facility but is one of the patients who will be moved at the end of the month. She’s worried sick about the effect it will have on him.

“Sarsfields is a beautiful place. It is open, there’s no fences, no locked doors. There are rural views. Patients are segregated in small units. Now Joseph is being moved to supervised housing which is being supported by a Cork-based mental health charity with support from the HSE’s mental health staff. But he’s not ready to leave hospital,” she said.

The Avondhu contacted the HSE South about the matter and was told that there are no cutsbacks at St Stephen’s, that changes are part of the planned ‘reorganisation of services’. The changes are in line with A Vision for Change (VfC), the national strategy for mental health, set out to ensure that people who use the mental health services have easy access to appropriate care in the most appropriate setting. It was confirmed that the acute ward is to close altogether at the end of the year.

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