A FAMILY are desperately seeking to stop the forced administration of electric shock therapy on a 40-year-old man who is being involuntarily detained at Lakeview mental health unit in Naas, Co Kildare.

A CONTENTIOUS Seanad vote on the administration of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was last night adjourned without an expected vote on the issue.

THE forced use of electric shock treatment — Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) —on mentally ill people is to be debated in the Seanad this week.

VULNERABLE people with mental health problems in Mountjoy Prison are not getting access to full and proper treatment, the latest inspection report from the Mental Health Commission (MHC) has found.

THE Central Mental Hospital is continuously operating at capacity. This is leading to people being detained in prison or in mental health hospitals inappropriately, the head of the Mental Health Commission has warned.

The body charged with inspecting the country's psychiatric institutions says patients in a number of centres are still living in "entirely unacceptable and inhumane conditions".

NO replacement beds have been provided for troubled teenagers requiring secure care following the closure of the state’s main special care unit last year.

THE Central Mental Hospital has introduced a “revolving door” admission policy in which a patient can only be admitted if another one leaves.

DANGEROUS or suicidal mental health patients, including prison inmates, will be left with nowhere to go from June 15 because the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum is closing to new admissions due to a staff shortage.

THE Ombudsman for Children is to meet with the Health Service Executive (HSE) tomorrow after she announced she was suspending her audit of its handling of clerical child abuse cases over an alleged lack of co-operation.

BARNARDOS has hit out at plans by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to shelve proposals for an extended out-of-hours social care service because of government funding cuts.

IN November 2006, as a member of the orthodontic services review body, I submitted a minority report to the chairman of the committee Mr Hugh Kane, and to Professor B Drumm.

MORE than 10,000 children were awaiting public orthodontic treatment last year, despite the appointment of 13 additional specialist orthodontists in 2005, new figures disclosed yesterday to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children show.