Call for mental health ‘diversion systems’

POLICE and court diversion systems should be set up to redirect people with serious mental illnesses away from prisons to therapeutic services, campaigners have said.

Activists said prisons don’t help people suffering mental problems and, in many cases, make them worse. The comments were made in response to a case reported in yesterday’s Irish Examiner of one sister’s outrage at the way her brother’s mental illness has been treated by prison and health agencies. Sally (not her real name) said she was very concerned her brother, Pat, currently locked up 23 hours a day for his own safety, could kill someone when he is released on March 26.

Pat was repeatedly given temporary release despite breaking his release conditions, despite stabbing a prisoner and despite an official diagnosis by prison psychiatrists that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. John Saunders of Shine (formerly known as Schizophrenia Ireland) said he couldn’t comment on the individual case but said it highlighted general issues. “Prison is certainly not the most appropriate place for anyone with a severe mental illness. All the research suggests that... There is limited mobility. The person is unlikely to receive the type of treatment required. They often find themselves in an isolated and hostile environment.”