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

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Jul 14, 2006 16:58

The Barr Tribunal: Over 6 years we await the outcome.......we know the Health service has not responded to any serious change. Let's ensure John Carthy did not die in vain and that the persistence of his family ensures a more understanding treatment and empowering route to living life with mental health problems.............................

Communication is intrinsic to medicine or is it that maze that corporates are nurturing that has stolen compassion, Hippocratic Oath i.e. 'Do no Harm' and understanding.

I subitted this article to a well-known health page but it may have been too frank so I was asked to shorten it. This I now do....but Indymedia, is my choice of journalism source from now on. It is more about Diversity in Unity.

The pscyiatric/community service provided by the State is grossly inadequate. Several years ago, there was a revolving door back to psychiatric hospital figures in one year being as high as 70%. This is the time all the reports were produced....NDA, MHC, Amnesty.....etc. These reports do nothing but convene conferences and gather dust, as far as I can see.

I desperately strive to live in the community but having sustained an acquired brain injury with learning and sensory problems and then complicated by Chronic Fatigue, I am a witness, to the notes I need to write to remember yesterday and beyond, to the ignroance and negligence of Services. The patient, consumer, service user is treated with total lack of respect and dignity.

Recently, again it was Boots pharmacy that came to my rescue. I have been over 6 months attending a community care service in Dublin 4. I am on high dosages of drugs and am having a difficult emotionally wraught period in my life. Again, a consultant not attached to these services suggested a cognitive therapist.....No go....

Hurdles.....Health, Education ,Banking, Phone phobia assoc. no stm. organising ttax returns, organising cleaner, organising PA (needs),etc

The day I arrived for my appointment there were no details of same and when my former partner phoned to say I had forgotten my phone, he was told I was not attending the centre. He went to the centre....In the meantime, one patient probably muddled was being escorted out by 3 Gardai, another young woman very distressed, just left.

I wrote everywhere because that is all I can do.....I wrote to Dr. Owen at Mental Health Council, the National Disability Service, the Hospital, Royal College of psychiatrists, to Dr. Hillery (IMC).....email makes it easy. An acquaitence knew I was having problems and when she realised I did not even know the name of the consultant - she wrote a letter asking for details. That was 29th June. No letter received. Names not known at reception.

My earlier article sites the facts of the visit to Community Services from my perspective.

Who has the right to change a patients psychaitric medications at the weekend without telling them.....? Worse, who has the right not to follow up> They were aware I would not go to A&E because of the Agoraphobia.

Thanks to Anne Therese in Boots and my former partner who had to confront the doctor, I am back on the three month prescription. I have had a dreadful number of weeks, anxiety, no sleep and no food. The no foods is because the body know the mind is faltering and in starving the body the brain works better.....Total scientific fact but common sense also.

We have to be seen as people. It is hard to live the life of the condition we have and it is worse when people's pure ignorance goes in the direction of accentuating that anxiety. (I hold very strong views on this in relation to John Carthy particularly around the issue of taunting him with cigarettes). Is it not interesting to know that in the US, if you have a mental health problem, you are four times more likely to be shot....

Why don't people listen to us? Why are people so lacking in understanding? People talk with such passion about One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest or about 'A Beautiful Mind' and rightly but my experience is their sentiments are shallow.

How dare the medical profession treat 'us' their bread and butter and Jam' with such a lack of respect. They say the funds are not there but I say to them 'Get out their and fight for us'

I wholly admire Aware, Dr. McKeon, Geraldine Clare and all the others who saw the opportunity to develop psycho education, facilities etc. for people with mental health difficulties. I recall attending a lecture and buying the book by Dr. Bates and again here is positive input.

How dare public services remain so bureaucratic? Respect and Dignity is the least all people deserve. Many on the streets like me get muddled at times. When you have no numeracy or cannot read, this is quite an intimidating world now.

Try saying - 'There but for the grace of God go I'

Thank you to the cinima and actors like Robin Williams who work tirelessly at breaking down the stigma attached to mental health issues.

In my letter to all.... I asked the question about Suicide and I asked 'Why not.......' It can be a really arduous fight. Thank you to the Samaritans who are always there.....in the mist. The words, the reassurance.

Michelle Clarke
Quotation
'Nietzche - 'he who has the reason why, can live with anyhow'...he too committed suicide.

by tabby Mon Aug 21, 2006 23:03

dear michelle
you sound to me like a person who needs help.Maybe if you entered an instatutation for a while you could get your life sorted out.
you obviously need to be supervised and assisted with all daily needs.Especially that you have no family to turn to.
Maybe if you got a job as you appear tto be very good at english and expressing your emotions it might be good to keep your mind occoupied.Think of other things people and not yourself.

by Michelle Clarke Thu Aug 24, 2006 01:22

tabby.......

You evidently never heard of 'Lead by example'

I have been in institutions, my aim is to remain outside especially when it is not psychiatric care I need but care in the community. ABI means I need to be facilitated to live in said community......but Health services have a problem with my request for someone to help me.

Integration is the word that sums up Multi-disciplinary medicine and the re-entry of people to the community. We only have 5 consultants concerned with Rehabilitative care......

Frontal lobe damage to the brain is about the loss of executive skills. The impact is comprehension, sequence, organising.......

Try get a job in a timeless day and seasonless world - I worked and worked two jobs, I don't shirk but my limitations have been dealt me. The writing is creative and is a biproduct of the loss.....Maybe you recall the right side and left side of the brain.......

You talk about self interested or let's get to what you mean, self obsessed. No wonder Ireland has such problems with road deaths and suicide with attiidudes like yours.

Think about it. If I was not motivated to write.....what else could I do with my life.

Did Yeats write words like 'Threaf softly, because you thread on my dreams'

Tabby.......there used to be a saying 'There but for the grace of God, go I'

by P. Thu Aug 24, 2006 15:50

Michelle,
i would just ignore the person who made those comments. The person is obviously a complete prat and not worth wasting your breath on

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Aug 24, 2006 21:27

I feel that when I write it is with the best intentions and such a comment does raise up the old insecurities....

by mary Sat Aug 26, 2006 20:07

I SYMPATHISE WITH YOU HAVING A BRAIN INJURY, DO YOU HAVE FAMILY TO HELP YOU? HAVE YOU GOT A FRIEND TO TURN TO OR ARE YOU ALONE? MIND YOURSELF AND LET ME KNOW HOW YOU ARE?

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Aug 28, 2006 13:20

Tabby

I have been reading your reply to Michelle of 21st August at 22.00 hrs. First of all, puttting it bluntly your spelling is deplorable, and secondly I doubt are in any position to give insults like that.

I knew a tabby once. His favorite haunt was the scenery around Shelton Abbey in Wicklow. His hobbies were Cadbury's chocolate and cuisine cooking.

Michelle is openly honest, unlike most of our philosophers in Indymedia but then again critics are very insecure people. Now Tabby, curl up to youir partner and you will get a nice cup of hot milk with a big Meow......

Jack Russelll

by Michelle Clarke - Reply to Marry Wed Aug 30, 2006 02:31

Mid June, I ran off course. I went to Services and beween a few events that indicated people with mental problems do not receive a lot of justice and dignity.

I had not in the 6 months seen the consultant psychiatricst abd nbecause the neuro psychiatrist was my direction, the outcome became and discussion as to neurology at Headway or or a c hospital and community work. I appeared to have no and each time I said thta it was lack of motivation driving me, the abyss and no control perfailed.

The final insult was a psyhaitrist I had not seen pefore reducing medications that I have been on 9 years without telling me. This created chaos and a friend interviewed with all concerned. I seek to gain acknowledge of my complaint from the MHC.

I ask the question, given the services in this country for mental healtg - why do we not take the view - Whare are there not more suicides.

We need to get hold of Atlantic Resources (Chuck Feeney) phlantropic funds and serious tackly alcholohism, drug addiction, Mental Illness with a plan based on worldwide experience.

Recently I talked to man who had left the Irish army after a 3 year sting. Hard traininf, practice weekends and then out to the big bad world.. A few familily problems and getting a like for the drink is not long about taking to being homeless and educaed alcolholl shelters, relationshiop problems.......Why.......

by tabby Sat Sep 02, 2006 21:09

dear jack.
Or should i say woff woff imagine being called jack russell .Getting back to Michelle I think if she kept herself occupied she would be much better off.
As they say idle hands make light work.
Now Jack get your lead on and ask your owner to take you for a little walk .
tabby

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Sun Sep 24, 2006 22:15

You suggest a lead and a walk for me, I presuppose you suggest Michelle take me for same, what a pleasure, I must add. It allows her the freedom, the psychiatric hospital would not!!!!

You suggest about getting her 'to do'.....something rather than think idle thoughts.

You appear to me to have bought into the propaganda of psychiatric......stop them writing, they might just say something inapprorirate, something you would perhaps not dare say!!!!! I think the word is control over......the unpredictable.

Your arrogance reflects that of a Health System that has seen funds reduced from 12% of the health budget to under 6% in the last number of years.

The crisis for young people means a 3 year waiting list......for psychiatric related conditions (Bipolar, Anxiety, Depression, Suicidal, Anorexic, Addictions, Social Anxiety Disorders, Phobias, ..... and the list goes on.....)

May suggest some light reading for you, to alter your biased view about freedom of thought in facour of mundane activity at certain psychiatric venues......

Try Erving Goffman
Asylums
Stigma
and

Michell Foucalt - Madness and Civilisation!!!

or Anthony Clare's Men in Crisis

Ask yourself 'Who wants perception without awaerness'

Jackie Russell

by Ernst Udet 7th - Jasta 11 Sun Sep 24, 2006 22:29

In adequate you say ????? Surely you mean non existant. What does community care mean ??????
To me and you it means troubled people being assisted and supported so as to enable them lead as near possible a normal (hate the word normal) typicals better life in the community To the Social Services it means dumping such people alone in the community and forgetting about them

ernst

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Sep 25, 2006 00:17

Urnst Udet.

I was losing faith in Indymedia and the trifling replies some people give to services that de-humanitise human beings in favour of bureaucratic structures and faceless people who lack compassion and commiment to help people cope. (This excludes a very kind psychiatrist who helped me, as best the services allowed him to for 12 years);. An of course, my general practitioner and partner Kevin.

Again I want to state about being in a waiting room and feeling pain for others and that excluded all staff..

In my few visits I witnessed people come through the door, past the security man, and the buzzer pressed.

The other day, a sharp recall came about by pure co-incidence. Illness means I need to walk for circulation and exposure so a coffee shop, outside with my assistance dog (phobias, agoraphobia and balance) sits on my knee and then the Squard Car pulls up. The tension envelops my body and my deadened memory is re-activated. I recall a few months ago.

A man, a little scattered, as I often am, is confused. He wants his medications there. They say no - he must go to another location. Most staff convene around the desk and this man tries to say he needs medication.

Do people understand what it is like to be timeless, to lose track, to lapse and take alcohol and get addled. This is a social reality of mental health difficulties.

Lucky for me the times that this has happened that staff in the pharmacies help me, show me kindness. More importantly they are pro-active to extreme need....especially on Friday's.

This was not the case for this man. He was mid-thirties and some mother's son.

As I was going out I realised how the staff had dealt with this non violent man.......very simple they phoned our Gardai.

For an unknown reason, I asked the man to walk with me to another exit....really just to give him time to gather his thoughts, when I saw three Gardai preparing to escort him out.

As I approached the street with him, the three Gardai walked towards us.....all that was left for me to do was to say to the Gardai words to the effect, I hope you treat this man fairly.

I have written to the HSE, IMC, Psychiatrists Representative Bodies, to the public, to the Irish Sucidology people, to Samaritans and to the Mental Health Commission................The wall of silence is there - I am but the fodder of a system that ought to be ashamed of itself.

Again thank you Ernst for your response, it is appreciated.

Let us please note, the lack of services for our young people - a 3 year waiting list and virtually no beds is ridiculous in our ever increasing crime ridden society.

Regards

Michelle

I add also: Daily now we hear about suicide focus groups, reports and I greatly admire the involvement of people. I however have to say one thing and that is if there are not serious funds made available for young people particularly - you will face the high numbers of suicides and don't forget the near 25% questionable in road traffic accidents because they will feel as others like me do and the question I have asked services and Government is 'You ask wmy people commit suicide, and I ask you Why Not?

Gandhi 'You have to be the change you want to see in the world.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Inclusion; understanding and compassion Mon Dec 04, 2006 22:33

Mental Health Services in Ireland. I wrote the initial article about the lack of integration, the lack of respect and dignity to service users and the personal experiences I had encountered through the public mental health services provided in Dublin 4.

I can report nothing changed and nobody from Ministers, to the Mental Health Commission ever deemed it necessary to respond......What am I? Well now that fear does not dictate my life, I am a person who can say, due to personal experience, I have been treated without humane dignity by certain professionals in our so called system of mental health......a system of total disrespect to those that society deems a nuisance.

Tonight I ask readers of this article to watch the Prime Time Programme about what happens to children who are suicidal, age 6, bipolar in their early teans. I want people to listen to what Denial is all about in what is but a wealthy wayward society. Ignorance and fear prevails as it did in the days of TB. This has to stop.......People must make a stand and particularly where children are concerned. Gandhi gives me great inspiration and I try to live by the quotation 'Live as if you are going to die tomorrow, but learn as if you are goine to learn for the rest of your life...." Embrace change but let this be at all levels and with ethics, and equanimity......

We seek to protect our children under the Constitution.

I would ask people that if we do same, will this give children who are victims of circumstance and mental health problems the right to Sue the State......personally I can say why not? I would support these children.

Watch the programme and form your own view but all I ask is please form a view and let's get proactive.

Michelle.......

another reference.....How we treatr our dogs posting? 2nd worst in Europe................Also we are not prepared to ratify the Bill on Pet Animals......nearly all other countries have!!!!

It says a lot about how greedy we have become.....too much into the selfish needs l..........

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Dec 07, 2006 18:58

Prime Time programme on Monday night effectively activated their research into what can only be called negligent neglect by Health Services and how they provide for human beings who encounter mental health problem and neurological problems with particular emphasis on children and the protracted waiting lists and viftually no services. Where are the studies from our academics? This ought never have been the case.

I for years now have written in frustration to services, via Indymedia, to Minister Tim O'Malley, to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern using my health situation as a kind of protype to see outcomes for others and most definitely children. I thought in my alienated livestyle per result of ABI, Bipolar, Anxiety and eventually a viral infection called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (15 year span) that the lack of replies were about me and my inadequacies but then Prime Time, Joe Duffy show, Pat Kenny show, Vincent Browne, Indymedia articles written by others I am now becoming cogniscent of an intellectual ignroance being perpetrated by people who do not care for the vulnerable...........This is sad and not acceptable.

I don't remember yesterday...i.e. head injury but I used to be a secretary PA in my preaccident life. Add this to the web and filing, the short time available in my day, I can relate in words my view!

I grew up in a rural Dispensary practice so I with a creative mind and practical experience, I have an idea of the model I thought existed in Ireland, when I returned from Zimbabwe, a medical, emotional wreck.

The proforma I had in my mind actually exists........I found it on the website today. It confirms that a Strategy existed - to my mind developed decades ago ...... but

From the webpage.......www.primarycare.ie........

In earlier articles you will know that my experience yielded nothing other than disorder to a prognosis.......

The Model includes for a Primary Care Team: An inter-disciplinary (how and where?), team based (definitely not for mental health, addiction etc). These teams were to include GP's., nurses, midwives, care assistants, home helps, physiotherapists, social workers and administrative systems.

They provide for the network........including psychologists.

Patients were to be enrolled with a GP within the Team

Self-referral was to be an option.

There was to be integration of Primary Care with Specialist Services.

This is the obvious, it was the obvious 30 years ago and now it is worse ........ for me anyway........and in particular with my dealings with Mental Health Services - Dublin 4. This was published by Minister Martin Health 2004.

I have witnessed people being a little confused and coming to get their medications only to be confronted by ignorance rather than understanding. What this costs the health board must be phenomenal and to me it is more about man's inhumanity to man.
The answer from the Collective of Health workers is to call for the local Gardai who enter through the 'locked door' lower the esteem to the ground of the 20 people waiting and duly escort the patient out..........

Please answer me the question that I asked when I wrote to the Mental Health Commission (across the road) after witnessing same.........'You ask why people commit suicide? Well, I ask you people, why not? This treatment dehumanises people.

Pharmacies have provided the most assistance to me when a little in disarray due to confusion.............

AS I said I live in Dublin 4 so access to people who know and can get things done surrounds me.

I would like to ask Pat Kenny, does he know about the National Disabilities Authoritity on Clyde Road.

Over the years I have entered the building and it is like a revolving door, I seem to just end up coming out knowing no more and with a latest research report in my hand.

Too much money is getting distracted via advertising, raising money, exclusiveness, competition. There is such a lack of transparency and accountability......and even more important humanity, ethics and justice.

Comprehension is a real problem for me and asking a question is difficult. I might get a report as I did on accessibility but my mind skips a bit and I an quite inclined to miss the crucible.

A dog has made a significant impact in my life.....phobias, mobility, protection at home, company because I rest a lot. Every day I must walk the dog and have a coffee........about interaction in line with limited capacity.

The mind skipped......Accessibility to me ran beyond the report......so I wrote many emails and nobody replied........This has not been the first time.

One last comment. This is December 2006 and I note that the National Primary Care Task Force was established in April 2002.

Michelle and her dog Jack

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon May 21, 2007 21:30

Mental Health and services inclusive of education.

I read an interesting essay written about the study of the Emotions at school stage. There are books written on Emotional Intelligence but the essay I down loaded fwas from MIT in the US. It was most impressive in its argument to teach children about their emotions, as a subject at school. The findings represent a reduction in violence and the benefits of a provision of life strategies for young people.

Last week, Tony Bates, Clinical Psychologist, and CEO of Headstrong wrote an interesting article about support systems for people with mental illness in the rural areas in Ghana and the provision of community interaction. It is worth accession from the Irish Times.

Crime, mental health, drug addiction.......the source of despair and discontent giving rise to the problems, is a good way to start to comprehend and understand.....please do not forget that as the politicians circulate in search of votes to remind them of these issues and the possiblities of redress that exist or will unfold.......

A comment provided great awareness in the UK papers on Sunday - it simply said that Prime Minister Tony Blair, was never that concerned with wealth. It then elaborated that Labour economic and social policies were about economic growth. Therefore, this simply means that wealth is safe and now the UK is a really wealthy country. The question is who holds the wealth and who has the power.

This makes me think about property and development in Ireland. The Church still holds vast tracts of property and per consequence wealth. The psychiatric hospital policy has been to reduce the numbers and beds significantly. Where did this money go to because it sure is not there for people with mental health problems in the community. There are too many people with mental health problems on our streets, their only error being that they are muddled/uncertain/uncared for by society.

Of course I exclude people like Threshold, Focus, Sister Concilio, Alice Leahy and the late Dr. ffrench Carroll - all people with empathy and will to make changes.......We need funds from the sale of the properties to fund proper community services......please ask about this also.

Also, the CAB - the time has come to ring fence proceeds of crime back to the social deprived areas. This is a right of the people.

www.mit.org Psychology or Philosophy site

Michelle Clarke
Gandhi
'You have to be the change you want to see in the world'

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Jun 16, 2007 21:26

I hope you have.

Two more suicides recently with the added complications of an internet page dedicated to suicide as a topic and a 'means to an end'......

We all sadly know the devastation caused by suicide in families, of families, to children and including children.

Personally I know there can be intervention..... or a mystery revealed that stops the act of self harm.

What is important is for all people to know. Depression is about despair; no hope, no imagination, no future......

Today by chance, I got the Irish Examiner (let me be honest, Kevin got the paper for me to keep my mind alert).

I opened the Weekend Section and there I saw an article by Ailin Quinlan that can be a source of hope so I thought I would pass the details on. This is for the young and the old; the executive and the pauper; the addicted and the hopeless, the depressive and the elated .....

Page 10 of The Feature Saturday June 16th 2007

It is about 'Taming the Black Dog' (Black Dog is the name given to Depression by no less than Sir Winston Churchill'....

Former Advertising Executive Matthew Johnstone talks about the book that illustrates his long struggle with depression.......and how he fought back 'dog to heel'.

He like others admits that a random article in a newspaper was suffice for him to re-draft his position in life......He decided to connect with a person who could help him

The catchy title is 'I had a Black Dog' by Matthew Johnstone Stg 10

If you are into the concept of 'Random Acts of Kindness' this could be a good omen.....

www.Irish Examiner.ie

Signed of : In transit Jack Black Russell Dog (yes, the dog from the pound has proven to be one of the greatest gifts I received partic. for agoraphobia).

by Jack Russell, Disabilities Dog - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Aug 16, 2007 20:12

Today, the Cafe culture, chatted about life experiences of people who are diagnosed with depression, and how they engage with people, their life-style; the highs and the lows. Stress as most people know is a key factor about life today and always. The question is about managing stress.

I looked at the students today; the excitement; the move forward in new directions and I thought back to myself in the 1970's. I was destined for university by expectation but somehow I could not handle school, attention etc.

I heard some mature students comment about how they enjoyed having gone to college at this stage of their lives, in fact more so, than they would have when the left school.

I totally can empathise with this because I got back to Trinity via a Horizon programme (similar to Community Employment programmes) and being bipolar with anxiety, with a TBI, I gained access to a means of learning to cope with my health problems.

I would urge any student who intends to attend University to contact the Disabilities Section, and providing you have decided to reveal a history of mental health issues, introduce yourself to a support system that will prepare you for life.

Quotation
Time Travel
Sigmund Freud, William Butler Yeats, Shakespeare,Dali, John F. Kennedy, Gandhi and last but not least Jackie Healy Rae and Bailey.
The meeting is friendly and cordial and after awhile Yeats with a cynical look, looks to Bailey and Healy Rae and asks what did you think of our company tonight and the two boys from Kerry and Sligo look up and say 'we are proud to sit amongst such brilliant men - theologians, poets, artists and scholars and we bow to your academic ways and last but not least - Bailey and meself are cuter 'huirs' than you will ever be
Podge and Rodge 2007 ....... a corrupt price!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Aug 18, 2007 01:08

Just to mentions a few emergency tactics.

Phone a friend who knows and understands. Then Sleep on the problem, if you can, and have rethink in the morning.

Then there is the comprehensive talking service that has been provided by the Samaritans for years. You can use email to write down problems.

Aware - associated with St. Patricks have a good phone support system.

Grow likewise. Details can be got from the Net and it is often worth printing of the details and having a structure plan.

Grow has meetings, Like Aware, so it is worth catching up here.

In UCD, the new Group is called Headstrong and it is under the auspices of Tony Bates - and man who has writtten succinct books on Depression.

If you know someone is struggling and wants to be left alone - yes you must do this but try sending a text that says anytime feel free to make connection. Leave it open on the vulnerable side.

Well done to Ogra Shinn Fein on the dedication to keeping the Suicide among young people, particularly men, to the fore.

Michelle Clarke
Quote by Janis Jobplin (1943-70 US blues singer who took the male-dominated rock scene by storm.
To the Full
'Don't compromise yoursel. You' re all you have got'

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Oct 06, 2007 21:32

I am a Jack Russell who visits Baggot Street every day ....... I am writing because I am disturbed at the number of homeless people who stroll in and out of the area, with cans of beer, and a little begging here and there? Some of these people sleep at Canal or maybe in a Park, if luck goes their way.

Who is accountable for integration of our own people......yes, the man who has a daughter a nurse, who is proud, but blighted by addiction and without the strength to work anymore?

Have we not learnt anything from the middle aged man who found himself without shelter and in a precarious location and was beaten to a pulp by a waste machine.....and almost dumped, never to be heard of again.

Does anyone think about why some people may be homeless? Do people think of just how neglectful our public services are for vulnerable people. If a person is not gifted at fighting their own corner, or have lost the health, the home, the values due to plight, I ask why are people failing to do something about their fellow human beings in need? Money is one way of solving a problem but never should it be regarded as the only way.......time is of equal value, but alas time is in short supply thanks to the success of the Celtic Tiger.

The Tiger perhaps is about to be humbled.......if so let us learn a little extra from the experiences of people and life. I note Glaxo Smith Kline Beecham are focused on Alzheimers research in Trinity and Galway and I say why not? There is an ageing population and a substantial part of that generation have considerable amounts of money that they need to keep invested.......this, as in the US, yields the power to the Oldies with capital and their power to remain in the decision making process. I have no problem here as long as they are not biased about the underclass or family that are in the underclass.

Meantime, the underclass are forming, dropping off the layers, and seeking space to say please help me live my life (it is often easier to just end it but their may be just some drive that makes you say no - I can add something to this society!!! You see, you have reached the stage of humility that the nice painting you loved in the drawing room of your youth and would only be a burden to you now. It is the painting and its aura you want, not its value and even if you sell it, your esteem may be so low that the price would be another nail to your list of failures in engaging in our society.....Mental health is about life being a problem, carrying out chores no matter how small are a problem. You need to be empowered. You need some kindness, some practical involvement.

What empowers a person? Acknowledgement. I always think of the words of Fr. McVerry about homeless people and in particular young people - it is not the money necessarily, but the hello helps.....

Health Services that prioritise and seek potential in those disempowered due to mental health problems, illiteracy and lack of education, people with serious drug addiction, those with intellectual disabilities are neglected - the department of health quite clearly stigmatises mental health.

Children who encounter psychiatric problems ....... need proper services in a secure location with initiatives that are granted and funded in other children's hospitals like Our Lady's Crumlin - companies have donated computers, space for a coffee shop, email, networks etc. Parents, siblings need to be included - that sense of inclusivity that ensures that the child does not have to spend their life as the 'outsider looking in'. Medically this term is covered under psychosis.......but let's cut through the terminology and work towards the inclusiveness needed in society. It is an inclusiveness that is the paradox of what is referred to by John Hume as 'Diversity in Unity'

Prison and mental illness: Release. I listened to a psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital describe basic issues that affect people released from psychiatric hospitals and prisons. It is simple but can lead so-easily to re-arrest or a build up of petty offences relating to theft and needless to say long-term homelessness.

As the research starts into Alzheimers funded by one of the largest pharmaceutical companies, I ask that these intellects who draft the research questions first, and comply with their prescribed ethics include 'us'.

I say as a person with Bipolar, brain injury, no numeracy, confusion, talk to someone who really knows their plight.....let them direct you in your research and try to empower them and rectify their problems and re-direct them. It is okay to assist a person........life is not all about competitiveness. It is about everyone being entitled to make a contribution.

Morning Star Hostel.....it greatly saddens me to read the Irish Independent Thursday 4th October 2007.

Lives ruined, a death, a charge, death by restraint aphysixa and inhalation of gastric contents.

35 year old Gary Connell is dead. He leaves behind his mother.......

Gary's photo shows a handsome young man; his mother is a young woman

The Central Mental Hospital have given their apologies.

There has to be more to life.......

Harvard website Philosophy is looking at Take Responsibility!!

Maybe we could start here.

by Michelle Clarke - Social inclusion Sun Oct 07, 2007 20:59

Tonights programme is about a taxi-driver with a new approach to suicide prevention.

This ought to be interesting.

Michelle

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sun Jun 08, 2008 21:44

Why are the mentally ill people so forgotten?

Why is the policy shift from 'Asylum' to mental hospital to sell off of properties; to non allocation of funds made from property sales and staff lay offs........to be seen in community care. This surely is the right of people in Irish society. There are surely responsibilities and obligations. We all know there has been considerable research carried out.

Community care provision for a group people who are most vulnerable is negligent to say the very least. Who takes the buck? As far as I can see is that nobody cares.......the HSE who are supposed to administrate only too gladly remain off side, receiving their guaranteed salaries, pensions and holiday pay. They have no sense of achievement in their work so they remain aloof from those in their care whom they basically cannot respect, because they are in Fear.

Today, inspite of all written; all the reports; the deaths of mother's and father and their little children.....out of alienation in our Society, I hear yet again an appalling story from a mother whose daughter is in a HSE care home. She told me that themale in the care position, assumed to be a nurse is in fact a security man, alongside a Nigerian nurse whose responsibility is the psychiatric drugs.

These are the Victorian Houses were find in areas like Elgin Road, in Rathgar, in Sandymount. The owners of these houses receive large sums of money to provide rooms for these psychiatric patients in a house. The responsibility medically for these people lies with Community Services - yes those services that only work Monday to Thursday.

This woman's daughter fell and for 15 days !! nobody, in the HSE responsibility chain realized she had in fact broken her hip. Can you imagine trying to go to bed and have meals when your room is on the top floor. This is negligence and it is only in the whispers we catch the realities. If this already happening in community houses for the mentally ill, it is happening elsewhere. What about our elderly?

I participated on Trinity Horizon programme for women with mental illness in 1997. 15 women were selected and we attended a workshop from Monday to Thursday for 9 months. I would love to know from the National Disability Authority or anyone, who benefited from this research......I am sure somebody has and I would like to see the model reviewed and up and running.

Cancer - daily we hear and God I don't deprive people suffering with cancer, but I ask people to consider those with mental health problems who have a high risk exposure to cancer. Those who are forgotten, those who may have symptoms but are to numbed and dissociated from life (maybe a mixture of medications and alcohol/drugs), these are the people who are forming waiting lists.....that is if they are able to go to a doctor and get referred.

Suicide is receiving research and funding now but please I ask people to move one step on and look to the alienated in the community, in the care homes, just people who find it hard to live at a given period in time and then we can make some allowances and try to interact, motivate each other and move on.

Michelle Clarke
Quotation Jonathan Swift - Dean of St. Patricks
'Give vision to the visionless'

Michelle Clarke

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Apr 02, 2009 17:29

for people with mental health problems.

I read with total horror the claims that a psychiatric hospital staff are handing out corporal punishment to patients in a similar fashion to that recorded by Prime Time about the Leas Cross home for the elderly. This is not acceptable, for basic humanitarian reasons. People in psychiatric hospitals often have no voice to represent them let alone listen to them.

I look at the splendid building in Baggot Street, once a Victorian hospital, with no doubt highly endowed medical practitioners, nurses, staff etc. Now it boasts 'we the ever increasing underclass of Dublin 4......yes the psychiatric cases for appointments with too few psychiatrists and no real case history maintained, there are those with the drug addictions and they have their clinics. It appears that some elderly come in respite. These hospitals used to have Patrons, Matrons and a high standard. What has happened....?

I can comment on this. This is my local community hospital and I am recovering from Lithium poisoning.......Where is the universality of the medical card system as it stands?

I have cost the State, no doubt a fortune from an ineffective health system for the so called 'medical card contingent'.....,.and yet who is responsible for the lack of communication.

Baggot st. used to be a place where you got your bloods taken.....and then the standard drops to such a level that all of a sudden it is transferred with virtually notice to Vincents........

I come under a neurlogical category, mental health category and now lithium poisoned which is basically for the patient about hallucinations (train spotting style) which could be allied to illegal drug taking, and I look out from O'Brien coffee shop and make a wish for a miracle that one day this hospital will be funded by a Philantropist like Chuck Feeney, based perhaps on the life and film of Patch Adams, to create a space for us with mental illness, drug addiction, and neurological problems.

Please Taoiseach as you 'CUT YOUR CLOTH ACCORDING TO ITS MEASURE' look to Philantropists and give say a tax break to the relatives, friends, patrons of such people to empower back to recovery.

I got this chance in 1997 from the Trinity Horizon Programme funded by Trinity Aware HEA Horizon.......I advocate at all times this advancement for people. Thank you to those concerned.

I then got into Trinity Bess.....and I steered by may through almost.......about one essay. The irony is as a I look at the newspapers TV etc, it is Brian Lucey who was my Tutor and to whom when feeling particularly wounded by society, I would go and listen ardently to his factual analysis of my situation. This allowed me to regroup my forces. Thank you Brian Lucey.

If I had to pay fees......I would not have had this opportunity......not to do with money so to speak but to do with Fear of using money I might need for my life destined ill health.

Due to the brain injury, numeracy became an increasing problem so I could work through paying the once payment of say Euros 700 p.a. but filling in forms to get grant remained beyond me for 4 years.

Michelle Clarke Economics......I say keep spending at local level. I also advocate that there should an overall policy of setting aside a large bottle and collecting all brown change (much like we used to do for the Biafran babies - and call it a collection to reduce our national debt so that we pay less interest......remember it is the interest that will bury us into subservience on a global scale.........GET A BOTTLE AND COLLECT. AIM LOWER THE NATIONAL DEBT...........PUBS, BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS, ETC. REMEMBER THERE IS 342 M OF OUR OLD MONEY STILL OUT THERE.....NEVER COLLECTED BY THE BANKS AND TURNED INTO EURO.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Apr 03, 2009 13:48

Fear. I am shaking now as I hear Fergal Bowers speak about the appalling findings in two public psychiatric hospitals in the country. Between 2002 and 2004 19 fractures to human beings were reported a year after the event......what does this say? Why the stigma?

Dr. Maeve Martin, part of the new project team suggests (and I would say humbly) that the massive changeover from regional health boards to the monolith we now have; the HSE, Professor Drumm, HIQA, the Minister Mary Harney.......is not sufficient a reply. Too many of these people have evolved with system we have in the HSE. If this was the business world and run as Michael O'Leary of Ryanair mooted as an independent from Government business concern, there might be a chance of market forces ensuring some for of ethical policies and controls.

They aim to close the hospitals (surely this is about gaining cash to be spent on the overall HSE.......this has been the pattern to date. You will note same from the above postings.

These hospitals cover people with intellectual difficulties (and there is a suggestion that psychiatric drugs are used in certain cases).

Physical, mental, psychologica punishment should not ever be given out in these hospitals. If the staff feel so stressed that they can't do otherwise.....simply review their own mental health and give them the alternative to leave nursing......

Look out for Fergal Bowers RTE.

The mini budget tomorrow. HSE have taken the buildings but just look at the community services they have provided and I am talking about Dublin 4.

This time in 1998 I spent months in Navan Public Psychciatric hospital.......I am unable to make a synopsis. I have Groundhog day from ABI and 15 sessions of ECT taken by taxi to Ardee.

I am now in the community and recovering from lithium poisoning........Mental health is making us the underclass not empowering us. Shame people don't listen

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:41

Today is budget day, a mini budget, but one of the most corrective budgets in our history since the 1916 Rising is required.

I was scrolling through sites and looking about at billboards, and newspapers when I saw the name of a man I greatly silently admire.

Yes Fr. McVerry and his assistant, the Jack Russell......similar to my assistance mate.....come to the for in a newspaper clipping I put aside.

Fr. McVerry is involved in social justice at ground level, and works hands on for many years with young people. He is the speaking voice and advocate for young people.

He is from the Jesuit Order. So I took a trip AROUND THE WORLD AND LOOKED AT HOW THE JESUITS CONTRIBUTE in North America, Canada, South America, Africa, England, Ireland.......one hours looking gives forth a lot of waking up as to what we can do in this world, while the recession takes its course.

The word Altruism needs savouring, appreciation and action in attitude change.

They have a whole dedication to Easter, stories, principles, discussions about Justice and Peace.......

What struck me was the Painting of the Last Supper with Our Lord standing to speak.........the Jesuits here give special mention to poverty, poverty of spirit, depression and suicide - Today pain is reflected through these paths of distress.

'Please do not lock us up' becaused medically are minds may be 'locked in a limbo', please encourage families to support their own suffering from such plight.....there are other answers to locking people up - we have head so much this week about the atrocities in our mental hospitals........Shame.

Michelle Clarke
Jonathan Swift 'Live each day of your life'

www.Jesuits.ie Based in Gardiner Street.....

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:18

On Drive Time last week, Fergus Finlay spoke to Marie Wilson, on the conditions of St. Lukes Psychiatric Hospital in Tipperary.

Fergus Finlay went on to say that while he walked through the hospital, how much things hadn't changed in 70 years.

Some patients were walking around in pajamas; while others were heavily dosed on medications. The walls were grim and dim. There was no sense of happiness, no atmosphere, just despair.

He went on to say he entered the Ward of St. Clare and spoke to an elderly lady there for over a half an hour, he found her as normal as he was......When she said 'I am here 68 years', he found it very difficult to hold back the tears and he asked himself 'what henious crime could this feeble old woman have done to the state'?

In the year 2009 - 170 years on since the hospital was founded - nothing much has changed. All those years ago, the inmates were shackled if they misbehaved.............now its a different kind of shackling, it is being overdosed on medication by Psychiatrists, Doctors.......

The most tragic thing about this hospital is that the Hospital Management knew for quite some time (as Fergus Finlay said) that a number of vulnerable patients were left with fractures and broken bones, Speaking on radio, sometime later, Dr. Harry Kennedy, Psychiatrist, Central Mental Hospital, said that every morning a part of the Psychiatric team visit each patient daily - I find this baffling. I am not playing the blame game here. I am just asking about ethical, moral, medical, accountability. There seems to be none for these vulnerable people.

The hospital management held numerous meetings and then the reports went (WHERE) AS USUAL?

Mary Harney is in charge of the HSE - we all know she has gone passed her sell by date but it baffles me that none the opposition asked any questions in the Dail about this - after all they are the advocates of these people.

Seclusion is one word they use in these hospitals. As Fergus Finlay said it is called Solitary Confinement in Prisons and now it seems to me that prisoners have more rights than the vulnerable prisoners in these hospitals who have broken no Laws.......

My final question, with the millions spent on all these committees, seminars, state board conferences - as a taxpayer, I ask why did this scandal go on for so long.

Kevin T. Walsh

by 'Portantfella - Kop on Society Thu Apr 09, 2009 23:18

In addition to ........

Quite wrongly a lot of forgotten souls seem to linger on for years as patients in Mental Hospitals such as mentioned .
How sad this is to me , how can these figures be justified i wonder , as for the people who left their relatives to the state run piss holes surrounded by
like minded patients i say God Forgive Them , how do they sleep at night ?

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity Fri Apr 17, 2009 18:37

Portant Fella.....

I agree. 'How can they sleep at night'.
Families have a lot to answer for and how they treat members of their families that have a mental illness.

Shame should befall these people and I don't mean people with the mental illness but those who shun them, who refuse to empathise and understand them. Those who don't care suffice for their family member to accept them for what they are. Yes, those people who only a few decades ago hid children in sheds or hospitals.

Last Night - the news featured the old Victorian Psychiatric Hospital in Cork. Now vacant, I would suggest a number of years. Haunted it now stands, ignored and wrecked by youngsters who know not the true history of hardship in this hospital, the souls lost to isolation, to pain, to anguish.......and I can say, I would not wish it any young person.

Let the Truth Speak......Is it not that the site of the hospital has such potential, and the memories are too much of a reality for people to accept hence let it become a wreck and then wipe away the memories.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity Mon Apr 20, 2009 20:52

Addendum to my last posting: Mental illness and all the many strings now that can added to it.......addictions, labels, anorexia, bulimia, asymetric, obsessive compulsive disorders........

How can people sleep? Why are people so consumed by Stigma? Why the denial? Can people tell their employer if they are Bipolar, even though Equality body exits!!!! I wonder.

There is a book that has been spoken about on radio. It is the story of a woman certified by a system for 18 years to St. Loman's Psychiatric Hospital.

It is about a daughter, in a rural town, in the 1950's......trapped to the life of stigma and lost until found......so many people are never found!!!

The title is 'bird's nest soup, by hanna greally.

Dr. Eilis Ward, National University of Ireland Galway writes the 'new introduction'

Quotation Cover Page:-
'This book give a gripping picture of life in a provincial asylum, the kind of institution that preceded the mental hospital hospital of today. It is the story of a young woman's courage, fortitude and faith before the most sinister kind of imprisonment'.

In 1958, 21.000 Irish people were in confinement behind mental hospital walls (0.7%) of the country's population. The well known sociologist Erving Goffman (Books: Stigma; Asylums) called it a 'CIVIL DEATH' - the slow stripping away of identity.......'. Now there are less enclosed but more mentally ill imprisoned or left out in the community with grossly underfunded services. Add to this the insecurity factor.....

Identity is such a strong word today. We are all masters at creating an identity that conforms to say fashion icons, actors, owning fashionable cars, wearing labels........'. These identities consolidate our position in life and mask fear, awkwardness, imbalance.......we are all but actors on a stage....

Dr. Ward says in the Foreward that the bird's nest soup ought to be brought to the attention of a new generation and I wholly endorse this. There is a gap in social history that we really do need to fill in and understand. Today, do not think the same philosophy exists in families, and in people in general. Yes, abandonment is the word........this woman had to struggle out of abandonment. Now there is the abandonment for another reason and that is if there is an inheritance to be gained or gifted, other siblings and a dominant parent with a view can push the boat out to encapture the person in the social services net.......Greed can even apply where the person has say a sensitive nature. The person can be just thrown to the wolves. The law is thankfully becoming less lax but there are still bullies out there targeting vulnerable people.

I would recommend this book. Hanna was born in Athlone in 1925, on the western side of the Shannon. Her family were middle-class. The family had a bar and grocer business trade and other property. The business and property came from her Mother's side (Hanna Murray married James Greally, salesman... Hanna played tennis, boated, had tea parties with friends. Her father died when she was 5.........this was the start of her discent......

Michelle Clarke