‘The Open Door’ and emergency mental health crisis care in Ireland - meeting people where they are

Abstract

On December 10th, 2025, at the RCSI, a meeting entitled The Open Door convened various clinicians, service leaders, and partners across urgent emergency and mental health care to explore their shared agenda. How can Ireland provide timely, dignified care for people in crisis with mental health problems and difficulties who attend Emergency Departments (EDs), while also building credible care alternatives to ED in the community?

A recent study by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) describes substantial variation in mental healthcare provided across Irish EDs and persistent challenges in out-of-hours provision. It also notes that injury units do not provide emergency mental health services, further concentrating access through EDs...