"Outcaste"

national | health / disability issues | opinion/analysis Friday June 09, 2006 11:22 by Sean Crudden - impero sean at impero dot iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

Stigma and Isolation

Mental illness and the treatment of mental illness have become conflated in the minds of lay people and professional alike. It is an astute practitioner who can distinguish the effects of treatment from the effects of illness when they look at a mental patient. In my humble opinion standard treatment contributes more to stigma and isolation of the mental patient than any underlying illness he or she may suffer from.

Sean Crudden

In the "On the Couch" feature (a regular feature) in last Tuesday’s Irish Times Dr John Owens was asked the stock question:

"What is your greatest fear?"

His reply was:

"Being really honest, it’s the psychiatrist’s couch."

As well as being an honest man Dr Owens is himself a consultant psychiatrist and chairperson of The Mental Health Commission.

Those of us who have been at the tender mercies of the mental health system - some longer than others - have truly gotten more than we bargained for at the beginning. There can be no dispute that the standard treatment for mental illness is disabling and disfiguring. This whole mirage of "recovery" which is being touted about at the moment is misleading for the only possibility of recovery within the present system is a spurious kind of recovery buttressed up by medical treatment and close supervision.

Recent research has shown a lot of goodwill towards the area of "mental health" but there is within public opinion a stubborn large remnant of fear suspicion and hatred of mental patients. A recent cross-border conference in Monaghan dealt with the theme "Stigma …. Myths and Mindset" and the overriding message coming out of the conference is that stigma is a mistake - a persistent and wrong-headed part of public opinion that can be corrected by astute public relations campaigns and advertising. The answer arising out of the conference is a "Madison Avenue" one and it is not based on any genuine consideration of why stigma exists and how far, in fact, it may be authentic.

The Young Progressive Democrats, Ógra Sinn Fein, and others have become involved in campaigns around suicide prevention, youth mental health and the area of mental health in general. I am not sure where any of them are coming from but I do not wish to patronise them or to suggest that their collective approach is disingenuous in any way. However they are naively buying into the latest deliberate selling campaign which is designed to classify psychiatry as everyone’s friend and saviour and to lead more and more gullible people into a system which, far from being perfect, can actually be dangerous. For example, it is a well-known fact that people who have been discharged from mental hospital are at a greatly increased risk of suicide in the days immediately following their discharge.