Youth Mental Health & Human Rights

by Michelle Clarke - Social Inclusion and Justice Mon May 07, 2007 10:18

Amnesty - Equality Section UCD.

Similar to Sean Crudden, I would like to hear details of how your meeting on Mental Health was supported.

I note Tony Bates is Chief Executive of the new Group Headstrong. I enjoy his easy to read books e.g. Common Sense Depression.

He writes interesting articles in the health section in the Irish Times every Wednesday. They are most informative and there is a clarity and scope that can lift anyone's day.

Stigma and Mental Health.
What do you think when an outpatient attends a public hospital in D4 and can expressly state that they were made feel inhuman, no intellect, and most definitely without dignity? Several letters later to the Mental Health Commission, to the HSE, to other organisations related to Government and mental health? Received the expected - no response to non person. Who helps the person with neurological, mental health including anxiety, complicated by ME........I learnt a considerable amount going to a public psychiatric unit in Dublin 4......not just about me, about how some people treat other people!!! (a little power!!!)

Someone may have details of the article in yesterday's paper. The theme is common enough but it is not recognised sufficiently. We are talking about any human being suffering from mental illness but being of low self-esteem and highly vulnerable at certain times. Anxiety (as in the case of John Carthy - the Barr Tribunal) complicates bipolar. What people must realise is the ability of others be it a spouse or a family, to manipulate a person in the cycle of peaks and troughs .... There is a need to be alert here; there is a need for a muldi-disciplinary team and a strong advocate to protect the rights of the vulnerable (let this include people with drug, alchol addictions)

The experience of Disability by Paul Hunt
What is it like to become disabled in later life?

(And when you take psychiatric medications, there are practical difficulties with physical incapacity, but also with deep-rooted attitudes to disablement which prejudice all their relationships and their aspirations towards a full life.

Marked out as different, devalued, patronised, stereotyped and generally disregarded by 'normal' society the disabled are forced to question the assumptions on which so many of us base our lives'

This book was written in 1966......mid way through the National Welfare State.....Institutions have been closed in England and Ireland but what about the new underclass....those homeless, in prison, in unsuitable work, part of familial game play with the aim to contrive their future,,,,not taking account of being an independent human being with needs that may be volatile.....Where is the empowerment that may be needed?

What about the distortion of the structure and the value system of society itself. Celtic Tiger introduced these qualities (soundbites) as the key attributes of the social order...(Achievement, productivity, vigour, health, and youth are admired to an extreme)

But what about these words and the message the convey...

(Incapacity, unproductiveness, slowness and old age - the hidden sneer is always there).

One point I think is lost is about Equality. People are equal first before disabled, disadvantaged......We need to work from here.

Amnesty and UCD Equality Headstrong. Indymedia looks forward to hearing details of your meeting and your views.

Interesting piece written May 2007 by Vincent Browne on Mental Health

Since 1988 there has been 6% decline in amount of funding given to mental health........a reduction on the overall health budget. Why....This makes no sense. The services, are out of date and need modernisation and most definitely a more broadrange community staff in the primary care services (that don't exist) are vital.

The Inspector of Mental Health Hospitals listed 10 mental hospitals that were 'unacceptable for the care and treatment of patients'. Then there is the proposed re-location of the Central Mental Hospital to Co. Meath.

Practice. Govt. promises to end the practice of accommodating children in adult psychiatric services.......Not before time. Why such a delay.
Can you believe that there are only 5 beds in Galway and 5 in Dublin - but these are only Mon to Frid. Has anybody listened to fraught parents over the years trying to gain access to hospitals for children in their teens and out of contro......

Savings must have been made: 11, 000 beds were allocated to psychiatric, now there are only 4,000.

Worst of all. 21 additional psychiatric posts and 8 child psychiatrist posts promised by the HSE (to enable access to Tribunals relating to involuntary detention) remain unfilled.

Quotation
Dr. Michael J. Kelleher, Psychiatrist - Suicide and the Irish
This man was a man of keen initiative and established the first research into suicide in the 1960's and 1970's......

'Anxiety is a sense of dread and apprehension about the future. It is associated with a loss of confidence and the loss of assertiveness. There may be fear going out, as well as fear of being alone. Added to this, there be a gnawing fear the suicide will be imitated ..... by oneself, as sometimes happens; or by children or siblings, as is far more frequently the case.... Depression and anxiety are often mixed.
Anger and a need to apportion blame are common experiences!!!

Personally, I feel depression became the word to cover a multitude. Then with valium etc. for anxiety, stress (because near immediate soothing) fell into the questionable category, people turned to cannabis, illegal drugs and of course alchol. Let us add to this speed (car).... The above definition is the whole synopsis of what anxiety is to me.... with the phobias, the fears, Michelle

by Sean Crudden - impero Fri Apr 27, 2007 20:18 sean at impero dot iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

Is there any chance you could tell us what happened? Did anyone make any notes at the event? I'm curious.

by siobhan Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:01

i think this talk tonight should be excellent and is much needed- hopefully it will get a good crowd

by UCD Equality Society Mon Apr 16, 2007 16:19

There has been a change of room for this event. It will now take place in Theatre Q.