A study has identified a “severely high” prevalence of mental health conditions among people living in homes made from defective concrete blocks.
Describing the results as “alarming”, the academics said mental health outcomes among affected individuals were “similar, and in some cases even worse, than those reported following natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, or among refugee populations”.
Rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation were “comparable to those seen in disaster-stricken and displaced populations”.
The investigation, carried out by Ulster University PhD researcher Oisin Keenan, under the supervision of Dr Karen Kirby, surveyed 393 adults living in defective concrete homes across Ireland.
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They found 30 per cent of participants were suffering from severe depression, nearly three times higher than the rate among the general population in Ireland, while the rate of severe anxiety was, at 26 per cent, nearly four times higher.
Just under 5 per cent of participants had post-traumatic stress disorder – twice as high as in the population at large – and 16 per cent had complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which was also twice as high as the rate in the population nationally.
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More than a third of participants – 35.5 per cent – reported suicidal ideation/thoughts, which emerged after their properties were suspected to be affected by defective concrete.
The researchers said their results demonstrated the urgent need for immediate, targeted mental health intervention for those affected by defective blocks.
Joy Beard, a councillor with the 100% Redress Party in Inishowen, Co Donegal – the area worst affected by the defective blocks – described the figures as “shocking” but said “they do not surprise me in any way”.
“The psychological toll on these victims, I call them, it really is comparable to natural disasters.
“We are in a humanitarian crisis here and the people need help, and they need help fast,” she said.
Her home, near Buncrana, was demolished in August, and she and her husband are living in a mobile home while it is rebuilt.
“My home was everything to me, it was my place of safety and comfort, and to have that taken away from you – and I don’t have any family here in Donegal, so it was, where are we going to go, and then the finances?
“We’ve a housing crisis here, this is causing a lot of people a lot of stress, they can’t find anywhere to live, and then you’re sitting in a home watching the walls get worse and worse, the cracks getting wider, rats and mice coming in through the walls, and you don’t know where you can go.”
She has sought counselling for depression and speaks “on a daily basis” to people affected by defective blocks who are suffering with their mental health.
“The other week, I had a father call me at half one in the morning, he’d to tell his daughter she wasn’t going to be able to go to college, because they’re going to have to have every single penny to rebuild their home for the rest of the family.”
Another family “are all sleeping in the one room because they’re scared the gable wall is going to give way”.
“Now, I’m a councillor, but I’m not a counsellor,” she said, emphasising the figures showed “they have to get mental health interventions in place for homeowners ... immediate access to crisis counselling”.
“This is trauma we’re dealing with here, but the Government aren’t recognising that.
“I hope now they’ve seen these figures that they will sit up and take notice, they have to sit up and take notice, because lives will be lost because of the sheer stress this is causing.”
