Five groups working in the area of mental health have come together to form a coalition to campaign for an improvement in mental health services.
The organisation, The Irish Mental Health Coalition, was launched in Dublin this morning.
It comprises Amnesty International, Bodywhys, Grow in Ireland, The Irish Advocacy Network and Schizophrenia Ireland.
The coalition claims mental health service users and providers are struggling with an outdated, fragmented and severely under-resourced system.
One in four people in Ireland have mental health problems but, the coalition says, expenditure in the area has fallen from 13% of the national health budget in 1984 to 7.3 % in 2004.
The coalition has called on all political representatives and election candidates to commit publicly to taking steps to work towards prioritising and improving Irish mental health services.
