Shame of shocking mental healthcare system

RTÉ’s Primetime last Tuesday turned the spotlight on conditions in some of our psychiatric hospitals.

The programme served as a vital reminder of the fact that a sizable number of our fellow citizens have for decades suffered in virtual silence, physically and emotionally, under a squalid, inhuman, and outdated mental health care system.

What they have endured has been the opposite of care in that they have been in many instances deprived of their dignity, their lives turned into a daily penance that the inmates of jails would be complaining about were they asked to accept a similar regime.

Sadly, we now have to face the shocking truth that these abuses are happening in the 21st century though to a different set of people. With so many other issues vying for media attention, and the increasing social and economic pressures on all of us arising from the recession, it is far too easy to overlook the heart-rending plight of Irish men and women in psychiatric hospitals.

What people who suffer from psychiatric illness are experiencing right now at the hands of the State could some day be our own experience. The days of cover-ups, “mental reservations”, and pretending not to know have hopefully run their shameful course.

John Fitzgerald

Lower Coyne Street

Callan

Co Kilkenny