Alcoholics should be treated — not arrested

THE annual report of the Inspector of Mental Health, Dr Dermot Walsh, is critical of the new psychiatric unit at St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny.

The nurses' station is situated in an area where the staff cannot observe the patients.

Patients with alcohol-related problems have no safe haven since the closure of St Canice's. We have patients wandering our streets and being arrested by gardaí. We must not forget that alcohol addiction is an illness not a crime.