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.