Psychiatric prison - Lives lost to institutions

THE plight of people incarcerated for years in psychiatric institutions tends to be swept under the carpet in Ireland.

That makes it all the more important to shed light on this dark side of Irish life.

Today we publish details of a particularly disturbing case, showing how one woman has spent 58 years in an institution against her will. It is a frightening illustration of the treatment suffered by many people, more often than not, at the instigation of their own families.

What makes her case particularly poignant is that 75-year-old Josie claims to have been involuntarily detained because of her erratic behaviour after she was raped at the age of 17. Her predicament, highlighted in RTÉ radio documentary Lives Less Lived, is by no means an isolated case. While the law has changed, more than 2,000 people were involuntarily detained last year.

Josie’s case is a powerful argument for stripping away the secrecy surrounding our psychiatric institutions. Of course, the identity of individual patients must be sacrosanct. But transparency is also essential.

An appeal process is now in place for people to fight prolonged detention but it has come far too late for some to escape the stultifying grip of institutionalised life. Society has a bounden duty to ensure the care of vulnerable people is not left in the hands of anonymous agencies.