The Mental health services are grossly inadequate. They are far from integrationist; inviting.....

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Sunday June 18, 2006 22:43 by Michelle Clarke - Mental Health: Community Inadequate Services. Inadequate and unequal budget from Govt......Why?

America, they refer to the Underclass.

Medical Services in Ireland are harnassed by the divide - you pay or you don't.......therein is the obscurity as to how to have hope and get the best treatment.....

I note Patient's Together are mobilising to challenge Professor Drumm and the HSE scandal of overcrowding in Accident and Emergency.

I am hearing too much about suicide. I am encountering a degree of medical arrogance that I can no longer accept. I wonder have people experienced similar problems.

We are not hearing about all the suicides.....i.e. those involving the Luas for example or the out of the ordinary number in Finglas at the moment.

What is the system saying......Are they confining us to no Hope and the undersclass category.

I did some voluntary work in Zimbabwe. Those infected were women and children. The word respect and dignity were core. I don't receive the same as a mental health patient in my own country........at a public community health centre.

Let us change Attitudes and let us mobilise through Indymedia to do something about Mental Health and ancillary health problems (my case acquired brain injury) and seek the services that are provided in countries like Germany. The time has come to stop the professionals and their self seeking research......

I ask people to consider this. I ask people to mobilise via Indymedia. I ask for Transparency and Accountability at publicly provided health services for people who need hope. This is a letter I have wrriten to the Health Reform Centre and to politicians and journalists!!!!

Mental Health is about stigma.......Suicide and mental health are closely linked. Ogra Shinn Fein and so many others are targeting suicide but really, from personal experience, a back drop of community health services with no financial charges are required to deal with the multiplicity that forms mental health and this includes addictions of all kinds........It includes our young people.........This is a public health problem but we have a situation in Ireland presently sanction by a money grabbing greedy government, of associations/charities who raise funds by activities like Balls, Running etc. This is fine but let's get real, we are talking about a public health crisis and the need for consistency and initiative for all people.................

Please add to this........Mental health gains a fraction of the funds of Medicine.

This is a knowledge economy apparently. The computer is a tool that assists me cope with Acquired Brain Injury; it lets me comprehend at my speed versus a quick in our visit to a doctor.......The lask diagnosis from a consultant was Chronic Fatigue Syndrome......it was the science magazine via the internet that explained what it meant.....

Wake up time and patients don't be put down. Your health and the doctors opinion is a genesis!!!!!! or should be....

Reform.....What nonense if the professionals you employ are so non motivated. Public Doctors are concerned about their private practice and money.......and registrars......well my personal experience is frightening. Why can you not come up with some form of ready reckoner and grant system so that people with me with acquired brain injury and bipolar and anxiety and chronic fatigue system can have complete progressive community services rather than a situation like Baggot Street that says welcome to illness and welcome to the Underclass. A young woman, when I gained sufficient energy to walk there, gave me a heart, an option, and true concern at the Citizens Advice Bureau in Adelaide Road.....

I am not racist but I expect to be treated with dignity.

I expect to be consulted about medicine alteration after 6 years on the same psychiatric dose......I don't expect to be told on a Friday and to have his instruction to the Pharmacist who knows me for 6 years basically 'I am boss and do as I say'

My anxiety has gone through the sky, I am not sleeping, the violent headaches are back and also I am back to vomiting on the street - I have no control ..... I cannot eat.....My family are way and my relationship over.

They say Monday visit him.....but since I am part of the underclass forming in Ireland i won't be listened to.

You all comment about suicide.......(I suggest you look at your practices......Suicide is rampant but public services could only make you think what is the point!!!!!

Have commitment and try doing something for people, treating them with dignity; look to the Germans, the Swedes, the Poles etc.......We see so ignorant in this country and this is not helped by the very low percentage of funds contributed by Government. Listen to your service users also.

Please direct this as follow:

Dr. Hillery
Dr. Owens, Mental Health Commission
Dr. Jim Maguire Consultant Psychiatrist North Eastern Health Board (a man of vision)
Mr. Enda Kenny (Focus on Suicide)
Mr. Connolly (IAS)
Mr. Gerry Adams (Focus on suicide)
Geraldine Clare, Aware
Try Mind in the UK for innitiave. I spoke with an Artist from Ireland who works with them and therapy.

I have had enough. I presented details of over 5 pages of my health history because of the various impacts from hearing to sight, mental illness, to anxiety, acquired brain injury to no short term memory....I pushed myself beyond capacity and ended up with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome alsso. None of the consultants even in the prviate are intergrationist....the fight is yours........

They did not need it and I can go so far as to say I was even mocked about my neurosis........and focus on the past. I tried to explain that depressionn was under control but that my motivation had lots of plans and no energy. I suggested a PA for an Hour as I had when I had the energy to go to Trinity.

I want people to realise that people have a voice and are human. I do not expect to hear from professionals in Psychiatry that they have heard nothing about the Manweller case.........Let them ask Vincent Browne and then examine the criteria with which they treat human beings.

Please note the number of doctors and doctors children who commit suicide......Is it not strange!!!! I believe it is that they know too much about stigma and it is easier to just go ahead and get to hell out of here.......Who wants to live my life and the stigma that surrounds it and the fear and the alienation and the vulnerability?

Michelle Clarke
Quotation

Ist I expect an answer this time

Gandhi: 'Live as if you are going to die tomorrow and learn as if you are going to learn for the rest of your life.

By the way: Please copy to May Harney. I tried talking to her but to no avail. People ought to realise the power of listening and the silence therein.