Brain Awareness Week.

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice Tue Mar 13, 2007 19:23

Assistance Dogs/Working Dogs are important.

Shame on Ireland that has one of the highest 'put-down' rates in Europe; add to this the cruelty.

Then think of people who supposedly care for others......you draw the conclusion

by Michelle Clarke - Social Inclusion Fri Mar 16, 2007 16:00

I forgot to mention groups like Headway, Peter Bradley Foundation, BRI, and so many others who represent the rights of those with brain injury and set up projects to help brain injured live as effective a life as possible.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Jun 13, 2007 22:54

10 p.m. and the news confirms the Greens are sidelining major promises on their Manifesto and they now after negotiation for the last 9 days, they are entering into Coalition with Fianna Fail.

They are foresaking Tara

They are foresaking the Corrib

They are foresaking commitment to a fair and equitable health allegiances to funded public health services and aligning themselves to Mary Harney's Co-Location. The American model of medicine is the route. The primary health care provisions will be under taken by Vista (i.e. the McIlvaddy contingent from the West). This month I notice an interesting article by a Harvard Professor on Healthcare in the US driven by consumer need - aimed at needs. It is worth reading.

I ask who is thinking about the non profit side of medicine - people like me in the mental health category, brain damaged group, in need of life time care.

Add to this other neurological conditions like MS, Parkinson, Motor Neurone Disease, - all life sentences if the services are not provided by medical expertise, staffing, rehabilitative services in the community, care services etc. Mental health is similar - we need inspirational people like Patch Adams......in Ireland.

Every day we hear of Road Traffic Accidents, Assaults, Murder, Children vulnerable at the hands of adults, sport that pays no heed to injuries sustained by people who will not take the time to grasp; to understand; to listen to what it is like when a head injury is sustained and life becomes a world in reverse, if not death.

Well done to Joe Duffy today. A mother spoke of her dear daughter; her aunt spoke and others spoke. Where is the awareness of the simplicity of a blow to the head and death, and in this case on the day of trial, the man who struck the blow with the baseball bat, a man who had been drinking all day with another man, and was found dead. A separated man with 3 children. Look at all the suffering as a result of a burst of anger, heightened by excessive alcohol.

This is Castleknock. Rebecca is dead and while she is saved a rehabilitative route in the secrecy of underprovided services and available professionals, there is bereavement and life scars guaranteed for too many.

What are we going to do about this? Co-Location is not the answer here. In fact it confuses the issue. I know, I had my accident in Zimbabwe and I fit in nowhere in the Irish system - hit and miss and medication for bipolar and anxiety.

Then we have several weeks ago, near where I live, on Waterloo Road - a murder but a man, who would have been in need of A & E services. To see the flowers and cards from friends for a young man who had that day finished school - it is beyond belief. A man of potential, a loss to society and a crime that never need have happened. We are talkiing about young people. There have to be some answers. It must lie in education and as suggested in America in education in the Emotions at school level.

Then today, a man, Michael Murray, another head injury with the complications that ensued of asthma leading to death. Where does co-location benefit this man or others rushed to Accident and Emergency; those with strokes, or the lack of supply of blood.

Then we have the Camper Van pulling into a lay-by, visitors from the UK and yes, again there is another fractured skull where two men aged 20 and 21 choose to raid the van with a machete and a hatchet.......

Are we thinking at all? Then we have a Gardai force who are oblivious to what a blow to the head can entail..........The Wheelock Parents and family are fighting on the ground for their son ...... they seek an Inquiry ..... again the issue is assault; violent and a blow to the head. Another young boy, in a similar position is dead, at only 15 years, a blow to the head while in custody is suspected. Why is their such quietude about the findings of Mr. Justice Barr - John Carthy shot dead by ERU (Mental Health issue).

I listened to Professor Lynch, the Mater with admiration on the radio. He worked from the boot of his car....... he holds waiting lists of 2 years and acknowledges the increased ancillary needs for those with neurological conditions. If you listen to the Consultant Orla Hardiman at Beaumont, a consultant whom I have no name for who spoke with passion on Q & A about the needs for neurologists at St. James and the need for a system of drop-down facilities and staff to enable the excellence in what neurology has to offer - surely, someone values their opinions. Then there is Dr. O'Malley, Nenagh - her expertise is scoffed to the degree she has to take time out.

Look to the websites in the UK. Look to the Maudsley Hospital, Look to Harvard - take a view.

Recent surveys have stated how understaffed our neurological units are; add to this the total lack of services for people in the community with mental health problems, addiction issues etc. I live in Dublin 4 and I have to say I do not need a Health Quality Service of the HSE - now headed by Miss Harney's husband, Mr. Geoghegan to present to me reasons why no one of their public bodies chose to respond to any of my emails for the last 4 years. I wanted help not confirmation of the fact that I have no short term memory and don't remember yesterday or sometimes this morning.

Only for the email, Indymedia and Kevin - it is a vacuum of nonsense for people who sustain injuries and are mentally ill stigmatised, like me. I need to be assessed on my needs at a professional level and the benefits of some form of multi-disciplinary health care. A mixture of private and public is not the remedy - my personal experience...

One more point. People complain but on two emergency occasions I had to go to A and E - I can only commend A&E Vincents and St. James....

You don't plan these things.....I did not the day I found strength to walk a little further than normal. I found myself at the Peace March outside the Dail - I walked through, people were asked to sit down and all of a sudden I was dragged by 4 Gardai, screaming about the pain due to ill-health. I was carried down to the College of Physicians and my head was hit off the pavement - I lost consciousness for a few seconds and was taken by ambulance. I ask you - who hears about this?........this was 2003 and I am still struggling with Chronic Fatigue. Please do not say I wish to claim - no this would never be possible!!!! not with brain injury comprehension, and communication difficulties (aphasia).

Please do not forget about the Head.....explain to people and particular young people to use BEBO and learn and pass on.

A life of rehabilitation and exhaustion is no joke!!

Michelle Clarke
Quotaton
Second Class - Irish Murdoch (1919-1999) Irish British writer

'I think being a woman is like being Irish.....everyone says you're important and nice but you take second place all the time'

I ask about Neurology, Neuropsychiatry, Chronic Fatigue/ME/Cardiac/Anxiety, Pain and physicological.......etc.....etc.

Then add potential to dementia......

Why make such a mockery out of people who are long-term ill - why not find a talent, nurture, even involve them in participative research......

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Jun 14, 2007 21:02

In answer to your email on Brain Awareness Michelle, you have to realise now that we live in a brainless society. In relation to brain injury, we depend on the Rehab centre in Dun Laoghaire and when the patients leave there and go to say the West of Ireland, there are no back up services provided to sustain a standard of life for people. I say this in relation to my nephew John who spent 5 months in Dun Laoghaire Rehab due to a car accident he had in Rome just over 18 months ago. John's parents and family are crying out for backup support. The nearest workshop is Galway but it has a 2-3 year waiting list and the cost is over 2,000 euro per month.

Shame on Bertie Ahern for selecting again Mary Harney as Minister for ill-health and profit. Her husband, Mr. Geoghegan received a 7 million contract with the HSE re. quality of service, just before the election. Now where are the Greens on the Moral Conflict of Interest. As the old saying goes - how green is my valley - not so green, after all.

I agree with you Michelle in relation to Garda Training and the use of Batons. Batons are dangerous and used with excessive force can cause brain injury. Yet, I see no Garda policy on this - but this now rests with the new Justice Minister, Brian Lenihan. Please let us not forget the Rossiter boy, and the Wheelock boy who died under suspicious circumstances in Garda custody.

Disabilities and their committees sadden me. With all the brochures and newsletters, meetings, research centres, diners, high teas etc. etc. and of couse media coverage - it is nothing but ego trips and gradiosity at the expense of the tax payer and those they misrepresent i.e. those with disabilities.

I phoned the NDA across the road from me - Clyde Road, Dublin 4, re. my nephew John. Sadly I had to coax my individual to send my nephew details on his entitlements as a brain injured person - it beggars belief.

I will close by saying tonight Michelle - John Gormley, Minister for the Environment don't turn your back on Tara, Shannon and Hospital Co-Location. Eamon Ryan, Minister for Natural Resources (Green). Now is your chance Eamonn to tell corporate Shell where to get off. Tell me you will Eamon, I am not Green.

I will close by saying Groucho Marks said 'I have principles and if you don't like them, I have others'.

Kevin T. Walsh

Quotation selected:
Survival - Wangari Maathai - contemporary Kenyan environmentalist

'We have a special responsibility to the ecosystem of this planet. In making sure that other species survive we will be ensuring the survival of our own....'

'the survival of our own' pre-condition is interesting!!!

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Inclusion Fri Jul 13, 2007 18:26

Terence Wheelock

Jury 4 to 3 - Death by Suicide

This is the judgment of Coroners Court but the family are not satisfied (and as a person who sustained head injury I can understand their uncertainty....see foregoing postings).

Acceptance of the Coroner's decision is one issue but at the same time let us consider assaults in custody and during arrest in the case of Terence Wheelock, Brian Rossiter and so many others.

It is time for the Irish Penal Reform Trust to start looking at injuries sustained to the head during conflict........Not enough attention is paid to the education of people and the use of emotions following through to assault and violence, excessive speed in cars, at sport events...there is a reckless form of behaviour that exceeds what is acceptable and the risk is sustained head injury for the victims.

My sympathy to the family of Terence Wheelock and the young Rossiter boy and others who have died while in police custody......

There are too many head injuries now and medicine has intervened to stave off death and provide a rehabilitative state that people fail to grasp.

To the Alcohol suppliers - to groups like Drink Aware. Let us get educated in emotions and unpredictable violence outcomes..

Well done to Indymedia and their constant coverage about the death under suspicious circumstances, while in Garda custody.

Michelle Clarke

Quotation.........Lies have become so easy now, they are almost habitual but can be destructive

Quotation
'In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a Pillar of the State'
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (born 1918), Russian dissident who spent 8 years in prison for criticising Stalin . Finally exciled after publication of his book - The Gulag Archipeligo

To find out more about Head Injury, look to the following

Headway
Peter Bradley Foundation
3 60 programme
Acquired Brain Injury report by National Disability Authority
National Rehabilitation Hospital
Beaumount Foundation
Consider American Scientist to consider the complexities of the brain, brain injury and the impact on the lives of people.

and then there are the illegal drugs - cocaine the Middle Class drug ......think of the subtle brain damage and the outcome long term to people who will become the vulnerable members (the underclass of the State)

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Inclusion Sat Sep 08, 2007 21:41

Just a note.

The Peter Bradley Foundation are promoting the use of helmets by children riding bikes. It is worth looking out for adverts.

Michelle

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Jan 26, 2008 21:37

No doubt it is almost time for another Brain Awareness week but I continue to write on the site, for the reason that Neurological difficulties affect a large number of our population, particularly young people who survive car accidents, traffic violations, people who get strokes and so many people.

Ireland is one of the lowest providers of Neurologists in Europe - Is this really acceptable for a country which has such corruption? We need to start co-relating extremes. We need to invoke anti-corruption legislation - the time has come for lawyers to specialise in Ethics........

Why so extreme? Because it is the health of the people of Ireland that suffers? At last we see a headline in the front page of today's newspapers about an action to be taken on behalf of the mentally ill for basically non provision of their human rights in the prison system. I haven't heard much about the Limerick Solicitor who is to take his case to court. He got a MRSA and a number of years have been stripped savagely from his life. Then add to these cases ........... the secrecy factor!

Homeless, day in day out, we meet people, mostly loners, mostly feeding a habit and these days around Baggot Street mostly young people, often young parents, trying to recover from illegal drugs, that have wasted away the corp of their physical, mental and emotional health. Too much desperation has appeared in the wealth. Can we not have a fairer balance please?

Who takes responsibility in the health system? I still cannot work out the Monolith, as a person with mental health problems, Acquired Brain Injury and complications and Chronic Fatigue (which is long term and most probably caused by the over reaction of the brain on the physical capacity of the body - and it is the body that wears out).

You see I feel strongly about how certain groups of people are left vulnerable by a Medical Profession that are money driven. I think of Hippocrates - the Oath 'Do no harm' and I ask have the people now in the medical profession adopted this view? What I mean is that through their 'neglect to care', they take it that they are morally covered and Do No Harm.

To hear the scandalous outcome for people with Cystic Fibrosis in this country and the brave writings of a young lady, and Sam Smyth, the Journalist, to stir up sentiment while unions, government, management run up enormous costs and waste of time, on a programme of work load that facilitates exceptional earnings while other people suffer.

The best reminder of the old medicine I found was a little snippet about the new Dr. Keane and cancer. Sound business sense, he identified that patients were being called back by consultants........several times.....but why! Fee as it used to be called. The irony about this is that it meant that the GP would refer to the Consultant but the Consultant may keep the patient in their patch...and private healthcare pays! Sharp eye Mr. Keane.

Who represents the vulnerable? The newly formed underclass which alas is derived from a Celtic Tiger in Ireland, that made it a country of wealth and note for the first time since the Independence of the State. What kind of Tiger is this.....he appears to have caused mayhem and muddling in the Health Profession.........It is only the 1970's when the change went in the direction of money for doctors. Prior to that, the medical system stemmed from the NHS typology in England, only we referred to Public Health and a Dispensary system.

Is health not paramount to a Nation? Do medical people not believe that a drug addict deserves a chance, do they not realise that drugs impact on the brain mechanisms like mental illness and similar to Drug Addiction? Do people not realise that young mothers with improper diets and malnourished children result in many problems in the future?

Why such disconnected thought function? Why not a more inclusive approach ...... All of us with mental illness, drug addiction, brain injury, neuorlogical conditions...........in extremis form a group of people that needed the professionals who cater for the broadstream and who subsequently need to be involved through other professionals in our life time rehabilitation. The answer is not to write as off ..... think a little bit more like Charles Vanier who established the Cheshire Home......We want some vision, we may even be able to give you some vision but at least consider us as people!

I will add that I went to the National Disabilities Agency the other day and picked up some brochures. The quality is excellent in the way the message is provided to groups, to facilitate the disabled. The only problem I have is that with brain condition problems, comprehension can often be a problem and others don't notice it necessarily - so surely the Consultant role ought to be extended, (as it used be in the past to a secretary) or to others, to refer the person to the correct rehabilitative group.

The article in Irish Examiner yesterday was excellent about the Peter Bradley Foundation but it is linkages between the patient, the medical and the provision of carers, or classes or whatever that I find so lacking.

Now that the Consultants are settling their finances......let us reawaken in them the spirit of medicine that once existed and does in some........

Mental Health in Ireland is a disgrace. Look to the analogy of Mental Health has assets like the Church has property...........What the Celtic Tiger did was that it kick started property markets.......those in the know, the planners, the developers.......staked their claim. Like preying manthus, the properties of the Church and Mental Health hospitals were nurtured.........Who is asking to see the Books of Account........We hear that some of 'us' in the community are in need while the proceeds of the sales cannot be accounted for.

Again: the vulnerable......child sexual abuse, mental illness, homeless and others......

The natural law has descended in Ireland but too many developers have flown the coup.......and solicitors......

Anybody interested in what Corruption is really about, I would suggest you read Transparency Ireland...........No harm to broaden your view.

We need advocates otherwise.

In the 1940's/50's, our health system had to deal with TB. It was dealt with due to doctors and nurses who realised how serious this illness and others like Dipteria are. The stigma that applied to TB ought to be examined. Fear can become a dreadful driver......

Why is it that Chronic Fatigue is so neglected in this country, particularly when you have the leading science journals reporting on it being a possible outcome of Acquired Brain Injury...

Michelle Clarke

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Mar 10, 2008 21:14

Hello

I have just heard that it is Brain Awareness Week......a year on since I started writing on this topic.

We know that if people have cancer, the body politic is shouting out for the provision of Centres of Excellence.

For illnesses under the headings of neurology and psychiatry, it appears to be quite the opposite. Funding under these headings ranks them close to the bottom in the EU listing. I suppose the disacvantage being that outcome is not so rewarding, it is basically rehabilitative with low potential of upwardly mobile earnings wealth potential.

The NRH does outstanding work but the follow on provides a different picture. People with ABI are often left to the resources of homes for the elderly i.e. if family or spouse decide to not participate in the recovery or rehabilitative process.

Excellent work is carried out by the Peter Bradley Foundation, Headway and others but this is only a drop in ocean when one considers the number of people who sustain head injuries in traffic accidents, due to crime (Daily we hear of violence and victims.....if they don't die, they remain a fraction of the former self and we hear no more). Why do we hear that scuffles invariably result in people kicking hard at another.....then in a rampant illegal drug culture, there is an ever increasing number of people, their children who are brain damaged from drugs......The Head, the Mind, the Memory are the neglected topics and receive inefficient funding from Govt......and personally, I attribute this to a form of ignorance and fear.

Brain Injury can often include mental health problems. This means we need to look at the Neuro-Psychiatric area of medicine. It sounds good but I would heartily suggest to anyone who gets into difficulty in independent living and desperately trying to keep in the circle you had once be part of, it is the Community Services that hold a moral and ethical duty to provide the support services that the Department of Health has the people's sanction to provide.

Stand in shame.......there are buildings defunct of character ...... they close on the Thursday and if possible they transfer patients to different locations and this can often be with the Gardai to assist. We need forward thinking medical people who have the courage and convictions to fight for the rights of their flock....There have been people like those in Aware but they thread a hard path seeking most of the funds from fundraising.

One more point. Why and how is it possible that the move of the Mountjoy Prison to Thornton Hall includes prisoners who are diagnosed with mental health problems. Where is the rehabilitative and conducive reasoning here. This is the use of Power to sideline a group of people, already marginalised to a form of isolation but with duplicated stigma of criminality attached to them. Is this fair and equitable? I don't think so. I would ask the question is there any research that medically identifies prisoners who previously sustained brain injury and subsequently encountered mental health problem. I would say there was many a fight, a fall of a bicycle, a clatter across the head........

Let us get serious. Stop the Stigma. Take down the barriers and let's have a multi-disciplinary approach that includes an accepted input from patients.

Look out for lectures given at Trinity......and other outlets. I would suggest an occasional review of the New Scientist......Neurology, Psychiatry provides a host of really interesting information and research.....

Michelle Clarke

Quotation: Why are we wasting our resources with a two tier health system when the model we have could be enhanced and nurtured to eventually provide the option for a Universal System of Insurance.....and leave people who want to pay the option to travel to the holiday hospitals. There is an old saying 'Water finds its own level' and in the case of health private splinter groups of care, only gives rise ethical dilemmas.

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Mar 11, 2008 20:33

This week is Brain Awareness week and it is worth looking out for events and lectures concerning the Brain and all its intricacies, as Michelle suggests.

Funding is needed from Government but there are other sources of funding.

Philantrophy is entering the Irish market through wealth funds, organised distribution sources. We all have heard of the philantropist Chuck Feeney as we have heard of Warren Buffett.

Let needs dictate and let people share a portion of their estates.

Groups I have come across

Aware
Headway
Beaumont
National Rehabilitation hospital
Neuroscience Department Trinity and other universities
The Trinity Foundation
Peter Bradley Foundation.
Grow

Kevin
My nephew John was involved in a car accident in Italy and it has changed his life. He has had rehabilitation in Dun Laoghaire but the issue is what supportsare available to allow him live as independent a life, from his parents and family, if this is his wish.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue May 27, 2008 20:48

When are we the Irish going to get to grips with Violence; Guns, Fast Cars, Blows to the head, unplanned violence in Garda stations......All of these are about life threatening situations. Yet can somebody tell me why Ireland ranks as one of the lowest in Europe, in medical capability to deal with these problems. I think I heard the comparison last night on the media of a comparison of standards of Ireland and Mongolia in terms of neurlogical medicine and no doubt Rehabilitation (yes, the option that exists for those who live versus die...yes those who but a few decades ago would not need rehabilitation, burial would suffice.

I watched Orla Hardiman, Neurologist, Beaumont speak with the comittment, compassion, dedication to what was once central to medicine, yes the Hippocratic Oath. This has core message 'If you can do no good at least ... 'Do no harm'.

Harm? Who is responisble for these decisions? The Consultants, the doctors, the nurses, the cleaners, the administrators, the families of the patients. How do we assess the true conscience of these people? Are there motives? Normaly not. Really hospitals ought to be the hot be of Hippocrotes and a credo of 'Do no harm.

Harmed are the patients.....the Accident and Emergency daily hosts the harmed. They treat the wounds of the body but in the case of the head....treatment is different, critical and in need of immediate removal to a hospital with Neuro teams. These are the people to limit the harm. This harm is specialised and un predictable and their skills are aimed at gaining the best outcom for the patient.

Harm goes a stage further here. Neurologists, hospitals can do so much but once you pull through, it is another journey of life you must face. This journey is for your family, your friends and for the oppotunities you once had, like a husband and children, to back out and leave you there in care and struggling.....
The Harm of the HSE here is that we have not the facilities for Rehabilitation. We do not have Personal Assistants to take pressure off our family and assist us to co-ordinate clothes, a walk, a medical appoitment, pay bills. Yes I go really hard on a HSE that harmed my need to reform and alter my life to help me cope and accept my life.

I became old at 32 and they tell me I am now 49. Day in day out I read the papers and hear the news and there are fatal car accidents, shooting, attacks, knives, young and D4 facing prison, This is harm and ongoing harm among people who are mainly young and really do not understand what a brain injury is. The media have an obligation and the Government to match the crime and the outcome in neurosurgery.

Harm and self examination: The time has come for those who drink and take illegal drugs to start taking responsibility for their lives. All of you who doll up to go out, try to imagine what you look ossified drunk, minus your panties, possibly sexually explored and worse you don't remember.

I know what not remembering is about daily.......but sometimes when you don't want it an old memory will flick through your head..........it is worth a thought.

I have rattled on perhaps but I would just like people to take some time out and think about this outcome:-

'Man shot HIS FRIEND as 'FAVOUR' to Drug Dealers

The man has a face but he covers it with a newspaper (there is shame at least). Mr. Dunne blasted

by Michelle Clarke - Social Jusdtice and Ethics Wed May 28, 2008 12:19

Michelle - I read your piece on the 27th of May just after 10 p.m. It is one of the best articles I have read on Indymedia in a number of years and you are absolutely committed with passion, like Orla Hardiman, Neurologist, to the issue of head injuries the violence on our streets from the abuse of drugs and alcohol.

Michelle, I also applaude Pat Spillane, former Kerry GAA Legend, on the Late Late Show. Pat spoke about the violence in Kerry on the streets at closing time.

What saddens me about Ireland today is the number of young men between 19 and 30 years of age doing 8 to 10 years of varying prison sentences for acts of violence completed in a 5 minute lapse due to alcohol or drugs. Ireland now is in the top three countries in Europe with the most acute shortages of neurologists and we only have one Rehabilitation Centre in Ireland for our increased population of 4.5 million.

Would the Judiciary every liaise with clinical psychologists and non celeb psychiatrists. What I mean is straight forward - when a young man is before the courts charged with a serious assault which leaves another young an in a wheel chair - What really is the humane answer? Is it a long imprisonment sentence - I don't think so.

Our prison regime is not trained to educate young men who have acted in anger. Our prison population now is now chronic.....overcrowding is everywhere and I believe it will not be long until MRSA will be in Mountjoy i.e. if it is not there already.

Some months ago, I wrote an article about the young boy named Brian Rossiter, RIP. This boy died in Garda Custody. What worries me a lot is the fact that the State are totally in charge of the Coroners Court which makes them God and Master as to how a citizen dies. I don't accept this procedure that has been going on for the last 80 years. I would like to see an Indepedent Body attached the Coroners Court e.g. Garda Ombudsman.

Some months ago, very quietly, and without many headlines, the then Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, now Minister for Finance pulled the plug on the State Pathologist's Marie Cassidy's involvement in RTE's documentary True Crime in Ireland. I agreed at the time with Brian Lenihan. The Murphy family had gone through enough pain and suffering for their son Brian (Annabels). But to see Cassidy playing out the Oscar Actress on the backs of these people was disgraceful. I believe the Murphy family were very upset over it. Least of all, let us not forget the young Wheelock boy who died suspiciously in Store Street station and also let us not forget the Italian Student who was savagely attacked at Fairview Park - he received a bottle blow to his head.........her speaks through a synthesiser, he is in a wheelchair, and needs permanent care for his life.

Well done Michelle on your article - its a good change from some of the boring topics I read about.

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics Wed May 28, 2008 12:21

Erratum

Previous article not written by Michelle Clarke

It was written by Kevin T. Walsh

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Jun 20, 2008 18:11

brain injury, through the passage of the last number of years paricular, have certain pre-dispositions.

It might apply to memory, as in my case, the loss of the senses, and over-tendency to be aggressive or in some cases passive.......

I really ask that Beaumont, Cork Neurology and other hospital departments be up-graded to a standard as high as in Europe and the US. People who sustain head injuries, who need rehabilitation, first and foremost LIVE now, and for a lot longer but the brain damage can be such that they no longer are able to compete in working and family life. We need money, we need more rehabilitation, we need our university research departments fully staffed and including people with injuries on professional teams (so that insight can be gained).

The title on the front page of the Star today about the Dumbrell brothers being evil...........is this not stigma and ignorance talking.

One brother - okay having jumped on a Guinness Lorry and then fallen to the ground and then a car ran over him. First and foremost, he is lucky to be alive.......although, for the family of the man so brutally murdered, this is hard for them to take on board

But......let us not forget the damage done to the brains of people night and day.....and the need for the intervention of science to gain the insight for such radical cognitive behavioural changes.

I hope that this Dumbrell man, while in prison, is willing to participate with research even by computer, to add to the widening body of knowledge that now exists re. ABI. Hope should always exist particularly in Ireland as violence increases and so many people die due to brain injury or face a life on rehabilitation.

To the Cawley family and the children.....my thoughts and a candle for Hope.

Ireland as far as provision for Neurology and Psychiatry (Rehabilitation) rates near the bottom of the EU
list.......and they ask why we voted No......

(quite an Irony that it was a Guinness lorry when we know our Accident and Emergency figures reveal the prevalence of alcohol and illegal substances)..........

Headway do great work......I attended a lecture a long time ago now.......a passionate Father stood up to speak of his son's journey back to school (with major alterations and loss of reading, maths abilities). Heads noded. The father admitted that the bureaucracy hindered his son's progress and the Father learned how to read and write to represent his case. We need people like this man........this is real courage.

Quotation
Winning - Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Independence Leader
'First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.

Michelle

by . Fri Jun 20, 2008 23:17

Hi Michelle,

Good to see you back. This article is interesting. It documents the results of Brain Trauma suffered by US troops in Iraq who are exposed, often repeatedly, to roadside bombs. There are an awful lot of them: http://counterpunch.org/hallinan06172008.html

Extract: "The Pentagon says about 20,000 GIs have returned with TBI, but most experts say the figure is much higher. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, says the figure could be as high as 150,000.

TBI is hardy new. Some 5.3 million people in the country are currently hospitalized or in residential facilities because of it. And its consequences surround us.

For instance, researchers have found a relationship between TBI, and problems like addiction and homelessness. “Unidentified traumatic brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social and vocational failure,” says Wayne A. Gordon, director of the Brain Injury Research Center at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

One Mt. Sinai study of 100 homeless men in New York found that 80 of them had suffered brain trauma, much of it from child abuse. A similar study of 5,000 homeless people in New Haven, Conn., discovered that those who had suffered a blow that knocked them unconscious or into an altered state were twice as likely to have alcohol and drug problems and to be depressed. It also found higher rates of suicide attempts, panic attacks, and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Jul 07, 2008 17:21

The news revelation on 4th July 2008 should provide hope and a faith in expectation (American Independence Day - the nation for philantropy ......)

A 32 bed ABI centre has opened in Gormanstown, Stamullen, Co. Meath.

This is a Redwood Facility: It will provide high tech treatment and rehabilitation for 32 people and IT IS FUNDED BY THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE.

.
Cathal McAuliffe, clinical neurophysiologist at the centre, said at the opening that many Irish people will no longer have to travel to England for more specialised rehabilitation.

Professor Tim Lynch, Consultant Neurologist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin spoke of the severe shortage of facilities in the public health system for the rehabilitation of people with ABI and neurological problems. He estimates some 10,000 people living with the consequences of head injury

I hope there is a place for the 31 year old woman in Cork Hospital who has a young son. Her parents have for 5 months tried to get provision for her. She had two strokes and her health is complicated further by MRSA. At least now, there is a little hope.

Recommendations:

The legal brain gives a more forthright view......Schmidt and Clark, a National Law Firm - Traumatic Brain Injury Lawsuits. The Firm S&C Schmidt & Clark:

provide an ideal bookmark to refer to and use as a memory bank.............www.schmidtandclark.com/Brain-Injury/. For a person with ABI doubt, insecurity, frustration disempower them.......reassurance is often getting back to the real now.......yes how you feel..........

Chronic Fatigue or yuppie flu and also called ME. Studies have found the link with ABI. I have had it since 2003 and it is most debilitating. My humble view is to try not fight too hard the symptoms of the ABI.....Two dear nun s in Zimbabwe where I had my accident constantly tried to put a reign on me....with the words 'Rest Restores'. I now defer to their experience.

Strange....I went out for my daily walk......with my Jack Russell minder. For some reason, he decided we would walk to Haddington Road Church......we went in.....and all of a sudden I saw the Franciscan 50 year anniversary magazine for Zimbabwe.. Needless to say I bought it. When I got home.....I opened the page......and it was my friend Sr. Noreen Nolan who, during the Freedom Fighter War there, had survived a bomb attack on their four wheel drive.......These are quite remarkable people.......and experience always counts and can be passed on.

Michelle Clarke

Quotation
Bertrand Philosopher, Philosopher, innovator, Mathematician, educational innovator, involved in sexual and social freedom AND CAMPAIGNER FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS.
in Man's Peril (1954)
'I appeal, as a human being to human beings: remember your humanity AND FORGET THE REST'

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:31

Michelle - I admire you consistent belief that things will get better in the profession of psychiatry today but alas Michelle I don't share your beliefs but I truly admire your standard of writing in relation to brain injury and depression.

Michelle, I came across an article written by Jeremy Laurance, It started by the pursuit of happiness. 20 years ago - the advice to those who were depressed and out of work was to get on your bike and get up and out to work. Today it is more likely - it is more like - lie down on the couch and listen. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (known as CBT has revolutionised the way doctors have approached the treatment of depression now. In the past, GP's might have prescribed prozac or other anti-depressants - CBT is now emerging as the patient's first choice and millions of people across England are turning up at dcotor's suergeries complaining that they can no longer cope from all walks of life.

Now CBT itself is under attack - a group of leading psycho therapists has warned that CBT is being used as a catch all solution to depression and that patients are missing out on other forms of therapy that would be more suitable for them. CBT practices positivity in ones life but instead of focusing on the causes of the stress or symptoms of the patients that may have surfaced in the past, CBT doesn't. It looks for ways to improve the person's state of mind in the present.

I will close by saying CBT can often just amount to putting a sticking plaster on problems rather than getting to the cause of depression. As one top psychiatrist in London said - CBT should be used in the first line treatment, handing out anti-depressants just re-inforces the illnesses mentality.

Sam Everington, a East London GP, Sam said - it is a very large practice - with 14,000 patients. Dr. Everington said that he got the support of a psychologist 2 days per week to cover the 14,000 practice. As a result of working for years with psychologists, sadly I do most of the work myself now. They only get in my way.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Jul 09, 2008 22:54

Jack Russell

Thanks for the reply and your reference to CBT and Dr. S. Everington and his years of experience in an exceedingly large practice (by Irish standards) of 10,000 patients in South East London.

I think I am inclined to agree with him .... i.e. if his view is that the psychologists 2 days per week in the practice, did not add anything to his prescriptive treatment.

I recall when I lived in England in the 1980's that visits to doctors practices was about time capsules.....I mean the nurse spent 8 minutes with you and the doctor say 8 minutes. The practice administrator was charged with the task.......of keeping time and administration effective.

To me, and I have travelled route of Neurology in Zimbabwe, Optician, Ophthalmologist, audiologist, heart specialist ad. infinitim in Ireland......that you need a form of mentor to link a person who can advocate on your behalf and vital someone who is independent and paid for by the state. Otherwise your rehabilitation is scattered by the four winds and your recovery is more about hindrances than progressive movement forward. For example, in my case I became overly exhuasted and moved into Chronic Fatigue i.e. ME where I have been landed like a beach whale of life, capable of little. This has been going on since 2003.......

About Cognitive Behaviour Therapy......This has distinct advantages but it not necessary for your psychiatrist to be you clinical psychologist. His function is more clinical; to determine your moods; your level of anxiety etc. If you have an element of trust in your psychiatrist, as I have had and have, then you can briefly discuss anything you need to be clarified. It gives you more of sense of responsibility and diversity in your life.

The Trinity Horizon programme in 1997 greatly assisted me (but was of little point when I became so ill with the ME) and it was at this time I was introduced to focus and attention - to Drama, to creative writing, to social functions, to personal assertiveness and health related......over a 9 month period. There were 15 women involved and we bonded well through our shared experiences.......Separately to the rehabilitation programme I had the major benefit of attending (with the sanction of my psychiatrist, a most progressive and enthusiastic counsellor). All provided different components that were about survival from the effects of brain injury, depression, suicidal focus, marriage breakdown, ....... anxiety.....

The word is multi-disciplinary........but to get this to work in Ireland is about a miracle.....particularly when one illness begets another and basically the exhaustions leave you so drop dead exhaustion in bed and not even wanting to eat....then you most definitely need more to help you cope. You need someone who can give you time, can convince themselves not to walk on by and nuzzle in and give you the patience and support that you need for an indefinite period. Believe me - there are exceptional people out there. I know......but you need support.

To the Irish Government. You may cut on carers, assistants, supports......but my advice is don't.....you will gain in finance in the long run from the debilitated person who is empowered and enabled.......

Please find alternatives before considering closing down programmes like the Drop-in centres in Cork or Castlebar......listen to the people....at grassroots.....even if there is to be some financial contribution made.

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Jul 14, 2008 22:27

or who have sustained traumatic brain injury.......or other neurlogical conditions......

Jack Russell here.

You must be tired of writing Michelle so I have decided to give you a paw!!!

Jack Russell, the infamous minder dog, has good news. It gives insight to perspective and being a dog I am very alert to perspectives.....

Until recently, if you had a stroke your prognosis was very poor. Your mobility invariably would be restricted and speaking could be a real problem. Communication might be forthcoming but the problem would be the level of comprehension the stroke victim has and the fact that this deficit may not be recognised by the world out there....and the patient would remain hidden under a layer of frustration that could suffocate the life's blood out of them. (Some people refer to the 'Locked In' syndrome.
.

To know, to understand, to communicate, to comprehend - without these, frustration takes over.

Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph. D. has written a book worth reading. The title is 'My Stroke of Insight - A Brain Scientists personal journey'.

Jack Russell goes on to say....this woman is 36 years old, a brain anatomist and in December she suffered a brain haemorrhage, (Stroke). By the end of the morning, she couldn't walk, talk, read, write or recall her life. Audaciously she summoned her medical knowledge, to the conditions of a stroke.

Remarkably in her book she has outlined her experiences - 'my left eye pulsed with a slow and deliberate rhythm, she felt both irritated and bewildered'. She compares the pain in her eye as sharp, 'like the caustic sensation that sometimes accompanies biting into ice cream.........She closed the curtains to stop the piercing light. She then thought about her blood circulation or lack of it and got onto to her exercise bike.

She tells us of the sense of dissociation that took over. She comments on the irregular feeling of her body. She talks about a riveting sense of wondery.

When her normal muscular coordination faltered she talks about her mind feeling completely pre-occupied with 'just keeping her upright'. She then went for a bath but had to support herself. It is the following words that I think may reassure a person with brain injury that they are understood.....and believe me, this is essential.

''I could sense the inner activities of my brain as it adjusted and readjusted all of the opposing muscle groups in my lower extremities to prevent me from falling over. My perception of these automatic body responses was no longer an exercise of intellectual conceptualisation........I was momentarily privy to a precise and experiential understanding of how hard the 50 trillion cells in my brain and body were working in perfect unison to MAINTAIN THE FLEXIBILITY AND INTEGRITY OF MY PHYSICAL FORM'

The last line.....'Ignorant to the degree of danger my body was in, I balanced my body against the shower wall......

As a Jack Russell, with an acute sense of hearing, balance that let's me walk on a cliff edge, smell that sniffs out the foxes when the roam on the street midway through the night and smell wakes me from my deep sleep..............I really appreciate that this woman has taken her suffering, her knowledge of the brain, medicine and science and shared it with people. Well done. We need more interaction and rehabilitation urgently......Funding Please for Rehabilitation ABI Stroke TBI Neurological conditions.........Wuff Wuff

Jack Russell selection of quotation: Betrayal. Confuciuss (c.551-478 BC) Chinese Philosopher

'To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice'

To the medical profession and the Minister for Health. Is betrayal involved in the commitment to health provisions for all people.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Sep 19, 2008 20:14

Thankfully - such a surprise for me to read in the Irish Times Healthplus article by Fiona Tyrrell the good news that a house in Eccles Street, is to return to former glory as the Georgian house (adjacent to the Mater Hospital), but with a significant change in purpose, it is to become Ireland's First Neurological Institute. This acknowledges an element of our inadequate healthcare system that has been ignored inspite of the rising numbers of people with ABI, neurological illnesses (MS, Parkinsons), stroke victims who have had to exist without neurological rehabilitative supports, leaving Ireland significantly behind the practices in other Western European countries.

Since a horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, I have been floating in an orbit, fitting in nowhere or with nobody because brain injury make its it hard to assimilate and leaves you unsure in certain situations. You can often be left outright forthright and often substantially altered in personality from your pre-accident position.... You struggle in that 'locked in world' -. mobility problems are clearly identified but those within, is another often altered but hidden problem - it is the one in your head catapulted by factors as in my case, no short term memory and one dimensions. You struggle, you try, you are exhausted, the one dimension focus sometimes makes you look clever but the truth is you over focus and arrive at a new outcome that makes you different.

You keep trying and in my case I was lucky. It was an experience route and feeling of being a pioneer to make people aware.......Trinity in 1997 was carrying out a research programme for Women with Depression. The syllabus and other 15 people chosen were part of an interesting programme funded by the EC with the research by the Womens Studies Department in Trinity, Horizon i.e. EU funds and St. Patrick's Hospital. I can only answer for me but this gave Hope, add to this an excellent psychiatrist, Dr. Jim Maguire, decd, and certain unsusual people, the hope helped me grow, seek to understand, accept difference and learn that you lose certain areas in the brain but others flower and grow......Writing became the haven even though I have had to learn to accept this is similar to what William Butler Yeats referred to as automatic writing.

Then I gained access to Trinity BESS.....I struggled with illness but the ideas stimulated, hosted and fostered, allowed me to use the computer as my research tool to cover up the aphasia (language difficulties), to use it as my memory, then to write angry letters to politicians about access to psychiatric services and the lack of neurlogical services.

Trinity to me gave me discipline and libraries, 2nd hand book shops and Hodgis and Figgis. To this day to walk into a library or a bookshop is possible whereas buying clothes, shoes is not possible. Books immediately trace to place in my pre-accident memory, often childhood and there I start to reactivate memories and add them to the day's event and if I have the physical health Holds with me I might even get to share my experiences with people on Indymedia. In my own funny way I travelled through the years 'learning to use tools, websites, blogs, the US, American Scientific aimed at forming an identity that my brain could no longer do. ME is a real illness and it is about Chronic Fatigue. Recently research has found that if you have ABI you can get ME. I did and it was just before my final exam in 2003. There are days when I cannot leave the bed......and this is an other neurological illness that does not gain credence in Ireland.

I also a man (Mensa) brain, and he got me a dog, called Jack Russell. Perhaps his mensa brain and my fuddled brain allows an odd mutuality that works.....we may be both outsiders looking in and the Jack Russell is the representative of evolution that helps us identify.

The Heading is on the Irish Times Article Tuesday 16th September

MAKING HEADWAY IN NEUROLOGY - PRESIDENT MCALEESE WILL LAUNCH
IRELAND'S FIRST NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUTE

The house is in Eccles Street and forms part of the Mater Hospital neurological department. Important, it is a non profit venture.. It involves diagnosis, Key : Treatment management. Support (vital) and Counselling to patients suffering MS, Parkinson disease and other neurological conditions - it is needed. Listening skills, understanding, mediation, are all vital components. Personally, the marriage severed viciously with a third party and it took several traumatic years going to court. There was no provision by the courts to secure my furture i.e 32 from never being able to work again. So much for loyalty and a 15 year marriage. Protection of Law is needed here but for the vulnerable.

Well done to the Neurologist, who is a forthright speaker on radio programmes, a visionary as well as a neurologist Professor Tim Lynch. This will establish Neurology as a Pillar of medicine - it will allow a greater amount of mutuality and multi-disciplinary teams for research and rehabilitation that allows the .patient to forge their identity with a source of reference. Prof. Lynch is keen to point out that the institute has been 'developed in partnership with the HSE but he remains frustrated the poor provision to date of neurological services and let me include the appalling standards for psychiatric patients and particularly those in the community. We ought to stand ashamed. Neurological or ME or Psychiatric are not fashionable illnesses - they don't invoke the compassion that breast cancer does. Equitable distribution of resources ought to be the basic standard in medicine........

Facts about Ireland and its Neurologically affected people
There is only one neurologist per 200,000 head of population in Ireland, compared with 18,000 in Finland and one per 108,000 in the UK. Please think of the number of car accidentsm say driver dead and others often form the ABI. Why has Ireland so low a level of neurologists in estern Europe. Chris Reeves actor rip drew my attention to the fact that the hospital in Israel is one of the best neurological hospitals in the world. I suspect the Northern Ireland hospitals were expert in this field at the height of the troubles.

How many in Ireland.?.....neurological conditions ranging from migraine, epilepsy and sinal to stroke, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinsons disease and Alzheimer's Yes, it is high - 700,000. Injuries are often young with long term rehabilitation.

Personally, I believe it is a lot higher. My experience with HSE was hit and miss. I missed all the time and eventually got located, near doctor, hospital, VHI.....the problem being that with memory deficits, exhaustion from ME, muddling led to insecurity led to agoraphopia. Yes welcome to Ireland's first Neurological Institute.........to the idea of media link, deep assimulation and shared experience routes.

Mchelle Clarke
Quotation 'You have to be the chanage you want to see in the world' Gandhi

by The Master and his Emissary - Individual Sun Mar 06, 2011 16:05

March 2007 was the first of the Brain Awareness Week programme. Having received notification on the email from the Neurological Association of Ireland, Headway, and others, it is perhaps prudent to remind Indymedia readers of their input to keeping the powers that be aware of the impact of Head Injury, neurological conditions, the impact of mental health issues associated with head injury in the hope that future contributions can be made.

Quote from earlier writer. We need to get reassurance from those who plan to reform the Public Sector that people with disabilities will not suffer.

'Funding is needed in particular for areas of rehabilitation. Let us look in earnest to the Government, to Socially and Ethically responsible public companies, to philantropic companies and to Minister Cowen's ability to set up a fund whereby families can get tax benefits and give donations to their own family members, when badly affected by brain injury. It is a life sentence but there is always a nugget - the expierience gained suggests, seek the inherent talent and then nurture it. It is after all okay to be different....'

To add to the advice already stated over the years and for those unable to visit the lectures and events being held, I highly recommend this book: The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist. This takes the neuro into the psychiatric to the philosophical to those with left brain dimensions versus those with right hemisphere emphasis.

by Blake - Brain Awareness Thu May 09, 2013 15:22

Every year, people are becoming more and more interested in the Brain. President Obama has lately made funds available for serious research into the brain and European governments are doing similar. The private sector like IBM Watson/Smart are paving the way for the connections with the computer and its capacity to mimic.

Ireland is making its contribution via Trinity College Dublin (Professor Ian Robertson; Professor Brian Lawlor)

The focus, and thankfully as person with ABI, the research concerns interventions to delay dementia. We are all living longer and the aim is to live independently and with better health. We need to know how to mind our BRAIN related health.

Some interesting points revealed at lecture in Trinity and some links to look up as follows:-

'Despite the fact that 70% of Europeans are interested in medical and health research, less than 10% of researchers aim their dissemination activities at the general public.....' Google in Hello Brain

Check Out Neuro Enhancement for Independent lives NEIL too

Blake

by Comyn - The Secret Millionaire & Headway Tue May 14, 2013 16:40

The Brain and the month of May is the European Union acknowledgement that as people live longer, dementia, brain injury, stroke will become more significant in our lives and much more costly to the exchequer.

Do we care? It was good to see the Secret Millionaire on RTE 1 last night and the visit to the Headway run programme in Finglas. Too often people sustain brain injuries in car accidents, a kick to the head, a fall from a horse and their lives change dramatically. In a split second, you say goodbye to the person you were and you suddenly have to adapt to a whole new way of life. The people at Headway carry out great work in helping people to adapt to these changes but insufficient time, money, research, information gathering from those affected with ABI, is a crisis in the making.

The Brain needs to be respected. It is not beyond the realms of comprehension of every human being and its exploration does not have to be left with the academics only. The brain and its interconnectivity involves every intricate interaction of every human being with their living environment and their consciousness daily and it is time for academia to cross that divide and allow people with ABI for example to contribute to their research and findings in a more dignified and respectful way. Maybe something can learned by the academics, the psychiatrists, the psychologists, the neurologists, the people who work with the like of Headway Ireland in their day to day routine. Trinity College appears to be paving the way with the Neuro Enhancement Independent Living research study stating that they want it to be more user friendly. Ageing and adaptation is a core need that we need to address now and this is about engagement and awareness.

It is worth checking out the co-author of a study, Michael Woodley, who has written on this topic in the journal Intelligence. It seems and is worth noting that the Victorians were 'quicker, smarter and more creative than the people in contemporary Britain, according to a study'. What is interesting is the new way of assessing intelligence based on 'reaction times' and that our IQ has dropped by an average of 14 points - and we are slower. What this is in effect saying is that this has led to a decline in both the innovation and creativity that we identify with Victorian Britain. Michael Woodley states "That these findings strongly indicate that...the Victorians were substantially cleverer than modern Western populations". He also points out that this dwindling intelligence was most likely due to a "reverse" in natural selection, ie clever people having fewer children. The emphais therefore according to James Thompson, a chartered psychologist ...

"Reaction times" are a real measure, with a reasonably large correlation with IQ, so this is an alarming finding and needs further investigation'.

You ask a person with an ABI what it feels like? You might be surprised how creative and innovative they become and how they cope. Science needs to open up to include people who have a contribution to make, albeit their reaction times may be considerably slower.