Mental health scandal - Psychiatric patients’ rights denied

FOR decades, the detention of patients in psychiatric hospitals against their will has been a chilling reality behind Ireland’s mental health scandal.

In a welcome, if long-overdue move to right this grave wrong, the State has finally introduced new legislation to bring the country’s mental health system out of the dark ages.

The measures include setting up independent review panels with the aim of reviewing the status of involuntarily detained patients. Acting as mental health tribunals, the newly-established panels were designed to review around 250 cases a month.

Against the advice of doctors and consultants, who called for its deferral, warning that the initiative was being introduced “on a wing and a prayer”, the Health Service Executive decided to fast-track a process in which patients would have their status reviewed within 21 days of admission.

Hours before it came into force, broad agreement had not been reached on key elements of the legislation.

Despite a crisis meeting since then, major teething problems have emerged. Regrettably, next month’s planned crisis session has been cancelled. Meanwhile, the rights of patients will be denied.

A central objective of the new legislation was that the rank and grade of personnel authorised to carry out “involuntary admission” would be clearly specified.

But less than a month after the law was overhauled, confusion is already growing over the committal of members of the public into care through the new system.

According to the Psychiatric Nurses Association, its members are in the dark about who can carry out the highly sensitive role of committal up and down the country.

Successive Governments, but especially the current Coalition which has held power for nearly 20 years, treated mental health as a Cinderella service, turning a deaf ear to repeated calls for meaningful investment in this neglected area.

In an average year, around 2,600 people with psychiatric problems are detained on an involuntary basis in Ireland. Sadly, however, the treatment of psychiatric patients has for years been a dark stain on the country’s social conscience.

Regrettably, because of the social stigma attached to psychiatric illness, suspicion tends to be aroused when a local person is committed.

Land and money are generally the nod-and-wink surmise, even when the individuals concerned are no longer capable of caring for themselves. All too often, politicians turn a blind eye to this problem, ignoring the blatant denial of human rights in many instances.

Obviously, there are no votes in the realm of psychiatric illness. If the promise of this new legislation is to be fulfilled, transparency must be the watchword when cases of involuntary detention crop up in the future.

Thankfully, there will be legal advisers and peer advocates to protect the interests of patients, making sure they are at least aware of what is going on.

Greater co-operation between the various factions of the health service is crucial if the new legislation is to have a realistic chance of working.

Given the ease with which people’s rights were cast aside before now, it would be impossible to exaggerate the need to shine a spotlight into this shadowy corner of Ireland’s creaking health system.