Act gives ‘far too much power’ to psychiatrists

DOCTORS need to sit down with people who feel they have been abused and harmed in the mental health system and see how it can be changed for the better, the clinical director of the West Cork mental health service has said.

Dr Pat Bracken, a consultant psychiatrist who has worked in the field of mental health for 27 years, said it was time for society to engage in an open and frank debate about how mental illness is treated.

Dr Bracken said the Mental Health Act puts “far too much power” in the hands of psychiatrists and serves to endorse the culture of “medical paternalism”.