‘Evidence mental illness sufferers can recover’

MOUNTING evidence will give hope to the hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from mental illness here as research shows people can make a recovery.

President of the Irish College of Psychiatry, Dr Justin Brophy, said scientists and psychiatrists are discovering “there is more recovery potential in the brain than they ever thought possible”.

The brain, he said, has a unique “plasticity” that enables it to be worked upon through psycho, social, cognitive and neural-pharmaco therapies.

“We are now operating in a dysfunctional system, an unhealthy ecosystem for the mind but we are becoming increasingly aware of the new paradigms for recovery which include everything from exercise and social therapies to a person’s environment. We are increasingly aware that social, emotional and cognitive influences leave a neurological imprint,” he said.

He spoke of his concern however at people pitting the “recovery model” against the “psychiatric model” as if both were mutually exclusive.

There is a role for both in a “healthy ecosystem” where therapies and medication can co-exist, he said.

National executive officer of the national service users executives (NSUE) John Redican told the IIMHL conference that stigma was still one of the greatest threats to those with mental health problems.

“Life is hard enough with mental health illness without the societal attitudes.

“It’s the stigma that disables us and not our illness,” he said, pointing to a shocking 2007 survey which showed that 41% of Irish people believed that people with a mental health history should not have children if they wished to.