Two out of every five people using the State's mental health services have reported poor experiences.
The research was conducted by the Mental Health Reform coalition.
Asked to describe their experiences, 42% of users said they were poor, while 29% indicated they were good.
Inpatients were asked how often they were treated with respect and dignity.
61% said ‘always/mostly’, while 39% answered ‘sometimes/never’.
Two thirds of users said their mental health team had provided no written recovery/care plan.
Those with a written plan were more than twice as likely to report a good overall experience.
Six-in-ten service users reported a high focus on medication in their care, while 39% said they were not involved as much as they would like in decisions about the medicines they take.
The research also shows that most relatives say they were not given enough information on what to do in a crisis involving their loved ones.
A survey of 786 service users' carers or supporters found that 72% were dissatisfied with the extent to which the HSE had considered their support needs. 11% were satisfied while 18% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
74% said they did not have the contact details of a key worker in the State's mental health services to provide them with support. 26% said they had such details.
27% were given individual counselling in the last two years. This was "by far the most common support accessed by participants," the Mental Health Reform report states.
Advocacy services were the least common support with one-in-20 receiving this type of support.
The HSE, which funded the surveys, has said it is confident that many of the improvements it is rolling out in services around the country are in line with what participants told the researchers.
It said that over the past three years, its mental health engagement and recovery team has established 35 local forums for service users and their families.
