Who speaks for the silent constituency?

I COMMEND the Irish Examiner (June 11) for highlighting the plight of mentally ill people in the feature by Harry McGee headlined ‘Mentally ill: the silent constituency’.

Who speaks for the silent constituency?

Referring to the plight of the relative of a friend who has since died, Mr McGee writes that if he had lived, it's likely that he would still be in "a spartan and locked ward with no stimulation, with nurses and aides being unable to do anything more than corral him from bed to dayroom to dinner table and back to bed again."

In these affluent times nobody should have to live in these conditions but, as Mr McGee reports, one of Amnesty's conclusions was that "in Ireland systemic discrimination against people with mental illness is an abuse of their human rights, and this situation of inequality will persist for as long as society tolerates it."

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