Analysis of Mental Health Issues within Irish Community

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the mental health challenges faced by the Irish population. It examines the historical context of inpatient psychiatric services and the development of mental health information systems like WISDOM. The study highlights key issues such as poor employment, social exclusion, and health inequalities, which contribute to the deterioration of mental health. It explores the impact of these factors on different demographics, including women and children, and discusses the role of cultural myths and stigma in hindering access to mental health services. The methodology involves a positivist philosophy and a deductive approach using secondary research from peer-reviewed journals. The findings reveal the adverse effects of mental health problems on the Irish youth, including substance abuse and high rates of hospital administration. The report also examines the design and unequal distribution of support and care services, including home-based treatment and government programs like INSPIRE. The discussion focuses on factors like social inclusion, economic conditions, and the need for comprehensive mental health services to address the high rates of mental distress within the Irish community.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH OF IRISH PEOPLE
Mental health of Irish people
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Abstract
The current study focuses upon the mental health of the Irish people. In this respect,
several issues faced by the Irish community in specific have been highlighted such as poor
employment status, less social inclusion, health inequalities. The social exclusion has been
seen to act as a catalyst for the deterioration of the mental health of the Irish community. A
very high percentage of the population depicted some or the other forms of mental health
issues resulting in huge expenditure on the UK based healthcare. The lack of awareness, gap
in the social policies and unequal distribution of services further worsened the situation.
Additionally, some of the cultural myths present within the Irish community further declined
the quality of the mental health services. In this respect, the women and the children depicted
higher vulnerability rates to mental illness owing to subjugation and dominance. Hence, one
such mental health information system WISDOM was developed by the Health research
board Ireland. The research focuses upon a number of different literature sources for finding
out a possible solution to the mental health issues of Ireland.

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Table of Contents
Background................................................................................................................................3
Methodology..............................................................................................................................4
Findings......................................................................................................................................5
Discussion..................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Background
There is over forty years of history of the people of Ireland using inpatient psychiatric
services. The WISDOM system developed by the health research board (HRB) has been
developed as one of the suited mental health information systems. Reports and evidences
have suggested that in Ireland exists great deal of social inequalities. Some of these have been
reported in the form of health inequalities. As commented by Das-Munshi et al. (2013),
poverty and poor economic conditions have been related to poor mental health. The down
trodden section of the society is also excluded from societal procedures, which further affect
their mental health. The Irish people settled in UK affected with mental health disorders have
been seen to show lesser amount of work force participation. The economic costs of lost
output, owing to poor mental health problems in UK amount to 13 billion pounds
(england.nhs 2018). The figures and the statistics as reported by NHS Uk were alarming,
where 1 in 5 adults in Northern Ireland have mental health issues, which is 25% higher
overall prevalence of mental illness compared to England (england.nhs 2018).
A detailed study has been carried out in order to find out the plausible reason for the
high rates of mental health problem within the Irish population across the United Kingdom. It
was found that deprivation, unemployment, bereavement, financial concerns have resulted in
the poor physical and mental health across the population. The figures and statistics say that
around 45,000 children and young people in the Northern Ireland have been affected with
mental health issues at any one time. However as argued by Hickie et al. (2013), the lack of
sufficient mental health information across different populations groups of Ireland such as
homeless refugees and asylum seekers have been further seen to contribute to the unequal
distribution of mental health services. The mental health problems could be further broken
down into individual percentages which give a clear indication of the penetration of the issue.

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As reported 14.6% of the mental health issues are due to anxiety disorders, 9.6% are due to
mood disorders, 3.5% due to substance misuse disorders (england.nhs 2018). As supported by
Cannon et al. (2013), psychological distress have been found to be one of the major causes
of mental health issues reported within the Irish community. As commented by Cooper and
Marshall (2013), only 1 % of the people who suffer from mental health problems actually
come in contact of the mental health support and care services. This could be attributed to the
huge amount of stigma present in the society regarding mental health which prevents the ones
affected from approaching the right channels and services. Surveys conducted for the clinical
data have further highlighted that in 25% of the visits to the general medical practitioners, the
patients depicted borderline signs of depression and mental ill health.
Aim
The aim of the research is to find out the factors affecting the mental health of Irish
people. The objectives of the research have been discussed as follows:
Objectives
 To critically analyse the factors which results in poor mental health within the Irish
population
 To understand the impact of government policies in improving social inclusion and
overall health of the Irish community
Methodology
The research methodology is an important part in the entire research design.
Based upon the chosen research design the success of the study is guaranteed. The
methodology of the research can be divided into a number of components such as research
philosophy, approach of the research, research design and data analysis. Here, the researcher

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will follow positivist philosophy where factual knowledge will be considered for gathering of
sufficient data. In this respect, quantifiable data will be collected by the researcher. In this
respect, a deductive approach will be used by the researcher which will help in developing a
hypothesis based on the existing theories. The researcher will adopt a secondary research
design where he will be collecting data from secondary literature sources and articles. The
data analysis will be done by the researcher using thematic analysis where the articles will be
evaluated for similar concepts and data. The similar data will be grouped together by the
researcher which will help the researcher in further presenting as well as understanding the
research gap.
The research criteria are very important in determining the success of a research study
design. The research will be conducted by the researcher based upon a number of inclusion
and exclusion criteria. Some of the factors which will be kept in mind by the researcher for
finding out the right articles and journals are that only secondary databases will be consulted
by the researcher which is CINAHL, EMBASE, and PUBMED etc. Additionally, only peer
reviewed journals will be considered for review. The peer reviewed journals which have been
published over the last ten years only will be taken into due consideration. The researcher
will also ensure that the articles printed in the English language only will be taken into
consideration. The articles printed in any other vernacular language will not be taken into due
accordance. The researcher will specifically find out as many as five peer reviewed journals
for conducting the research. The researcher will specifically stick to the UK based journals
or articles.
Findings
From the analysis of the different peer reviewed articles a number of centralised
themes have been discovered. The articles stressed upon the importance of having a

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comprehensive support and care services for catering to the mental health issues of the
Ireland based people. It was found that the people were apprehensive initially of taking help
from community based services. The recent changes within the Ireland mental healthcare
policies stressed upon the importance of individual recovery through specialist mental health
services. However, wide variety of differences were noted in the end results of the
procedures owing to a number of hindrances such as lack of cooperation from the
participants, lack of sufficient resources to conduct the research study. Based upon the
systematic review of the different peer reviewed journals number of key themes have been
identified which are –adverse effects of mental health problems on the Irish youth and care
for the mentally depressed community by advocating different therapeutic and intervention
methods.
Adverse effects of mental health problems on the Irish community
The mental health disorders of the Irish community have resulted in adverse
outcomes. Some of which have produced negative impact upon the youth such as inclination
towards substance abuse. The use of unscheduled rugs within the Irish youth has been related
to high rates of crime. As commented by Coughlan et al. (2013), the unwillingness of the
young people in availing of the mental health and care service often affect the success of the
care process delivery. In urban deprived areas the risk factors of mental health problems are
usually common (Happell and Gaskin 2013). In this respect, semi-structured interview was
conducted with healthcare professionals from primary, secondary and community agencies.
As commented by Delaney et al. (2013), raising awareness through educational means and
youth friendly practices can help in reducing the addiction level within the population. The
mental health problems also results in high rates of hospital administration owing to mental
stress or trauma.

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Designing support and care services for the mentally depressed class
The mental health scenario of the Ireland based community focuses on the importance
of designing an effective home based treatment method for the population. This was brought
into process in order to provide equal opportunity to care and support services to the women
as well as the children who might be apprehensive to approach the direct mental healthcare
channels. However unequal distribution of the home based treatment methods was noted.
From the detailed analysis it was found that almost 68% of mental health services in Ireland
were offering 24/7 mental health care services (McCann et al. 2013). Most of the respondents
of the interview confirmed that HBT was a cost- effective method which was supposed to
improve patient outcome. However, it was found that many areas in Ireland had little or no
HBT facilities resulting in unequal distribution of services (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014).
Additionally, a number of specific changes were brought about by the government for
providing standard individual recovery services to the participants. In Ireland, personal
recovery is one of the quality markers highlighted by the World Health Organization (Leahy
et al. 2013). One such program which had been implemented by the Ireland government for
the benefit of the people suffering mental health disorders in Ireland is INSPIRE. The
program measures the amount of support received from mental health care staffs and the
manner in which the services have benefitted the patient population (Shah et al. 2016). The
subjects of the qualitative study had mentioned that support from other people was an
important part of the recovery process. However as argued by Donal et al.(2015), the nature
and the extent of the relationships of the patients with their care professionals have not been
given much importance within the program implemented by the government. In this respect,

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studies have been conducted to establish the relationship between mental health literacy and
psychiatric stigma. As study conducted within the Irish community settled in England have
correctly identified that almost 34.1 % of the population who had shown signs of borderline
schizophrenia could identify the disorder (O’Keeffe and Russell 2018). However, a number
of factors acted as stimulus for the identification and the acknowledgement of the disease.
Some of these factors were higher age, higher socioeconomic status and geographic location.
It was found that people with higher level of mental health literacy were comparatively more
judgmental of the people suffering from mental health disorders (Hickie et al. 2013). On the
other hand the ones who had comparatively lesser knowledge of schizophrenia were less
critical of the disease.
Discussion
The assignment focuses on the various aspects of mental health within the Irish
community. The Irish community have been reported to show higher level of mental health
distress, owing to a number of issues which consists of social neglect, poor economic
condition, lack of employment. Hence the paper addresses the different findings regarding the
mental health issues present within the population. The study was conducted in order to
analyse the risk of psychosis within the Irish community and its effect on the larger
community base. The study helped us reflect upon a number of objectives at the same time.
There was the growing menace of thefts and crimes within the Irish population. As
commented by Bhui (2016), low social inclusion and poor economic condition often results
in the development of a negative attitude within the population. As commented by Gondek et
al.(2017), social neglect have often drifted the Irish youth towards unhealthy activities such
as addiction to alcohol and substance abuse. Addiction to substance abuse has been seen to

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affect the impulse within the population. As argued by Rogers and Pilgrim (2014), the loss of
impulse have often been associated with higher rates of crime.
In this respect, a growth within the home based treatment methods could help in
checking the progression of the diseases within the community. Additionally, it could help in
bringing the neglected section of the society under one umbrella. The Inspire program also
helps in measuring the amount of support benefits provided by the mental healthcare staff to
the Irish community (Delaney et al. 2013).
Conclusion
Most of the Irish people affected with mental health problems would consult a general
physician rather than specialised support and care services. This could be attributed to the
lack of sufficient self esteem within the population along with societal stigmas, which
prevented them from approaching the relevant support services. However, negative or
inverse relation has been observed with regards to mental health awareness and reduced
psychiatric stigma. Therefore, one of the steps which could be taken over here was to provide
an effective mental healthcare education to the population. This could be done by making the
community look at the larger picture which reflects more upon the positive and less upon the
negative. Additionally, enhancing the social inclusion of the Irish community can also help in
addressing the issues faced by them. On the other hand, making the home based treatment
methods strong can also help in taking care of the population on a large scale.

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