Shirley Moloney

“Mrs [name redacted] suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. There was evidence of her mental state deteriorating in the months leading up to her death. Her mental health deterioration is likely to have impacted upon her physical health deterioration, but she was not under the care of community mental health services in the last nine months of her life.”

“The inquest heard that older age psychiatric teams are very poorly resourced, nationally. This is compounded by an absence of adequately trained staff, to address mental health in residential home settings. The inquest also heard that there is a lack of establishments suitably designed for dual physical/mental health needs.”

“Once discharged from an older age community psychiatry team, it can take a very long time to access the teams again. These delays can act as a deterrent to GPs in referring patients to community mental health teams.”

“The inquest heard that mental health concerns can often be overlooked towards the end of life. Structures for accessing care for physical symptoms towards the end of life are well developed. Accessing care and support for psychological distress is not so well defined. Care homes and nursing homes tend to have mainly general nurses, as opposed to mental health nurses. They also have easy access to GPs and geriatricians. There is a perceived lack of easy access to older age psychiatry teams, by care”

“As mental health and physical health are so closely inter-linked, the lack of older adult psychiatry resource for elderly patients, gives rise to a risk of future deaths.”