Man ‘taken off street and thrown into mental hospital’

A MAN who has spent most of the last 40 years in a psychiatric hospital was brought to the institution by a garda who found him wandering the streets of Cork in a dishevelled state.

Papers, seen by the Irish Examiner, relating to the care of 59-year-old Christy Smith do not include any formal admission form involuntarily committing the then teenager to the psychiatric unit.

His sister Mary, who only tracked the former Upton Industrial School resident after many years not knowing she had a brother, wants to know the circumstances behind her brother’s detention and why he has spent so many decades as a psychiatric patient.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is to investigate the case, according to a letter sent by Tánaiste Mary Harney’s office to Ms Smith, who only learned of the existence of her brother 15 years ago.

As children, both were taken into care - Mary at birth, Christy at four years of age - largely because their mother had a second child out of marriage. Their mother was placed in a mental institution in her late teens and died aged 32.

Ms Smith believes there are serious questions to answer over the nature of Christy’s committal in 1966 to Our Lady’s Hospital on the Lee Road in Cork.

While there were references to a psychiatric condition, there was no official committal form detaining him involuntarily under the then Mental Treatment Act.

He was transferred to St Stephen’s facility in Glanmire following the closure of the Lee Road hospital.

“He was never committed. He was taken off the street and thrown into a mental hospital and pumped full of drugs,” said Ms Smith, who lives in Dublin.

The papers include a form dated 1993, signed by Christy, agreeing to his voluntary committal to St Anne’s Psychiatric Unit.

This followed a short period, believed to be the only time in 40 years, when Christy lived in the community, in a hostel in Bantry. Ms Smith questions the authenticity of this form.

The HSE Southern Region has said it cannot comment on individual patients. The majority of patients are voluntary and a number have spent many years in care.

The policy, however, is that patients should live outside of institutions, as independently and as close to their own communities and families as possible.