Dublin People - Anger at prison move for mental hospital

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Anger at prison move for mental hospital

Wednesday, 04 June 2008

A Government decision to develop a new mental hospital comprising 120 beds at the controversial prison site has been opposed by groups including Amnesty International, CMH Carers' Group and Mental Health Ireland.
The groups claim that placing the new hospital adjacent to the prison will impede rehabilitation by moving people with mental illness away from society as well as creating an association between mental illness and criminality.
Southsider Kay Marshall, a member of the CMH Carers’ Group, explained how the move would take patients away from their families and carers, causing great stress to all involved.
"These people are patients and many have not committed any crimes,” she stated. “They have a right to be free from stigma and discrimination but being rehoused in an isolated facility beside a prison can only lead to an association with criminality. I have nothing against prisoners but this is the association people will make.”
She added: “These patients aren’t serving custodial sentences; they are being treated so they can re-enter society as soon as possible.
“It beggars belief that the Government can do this to one of the weakest groups in society. This must be resolved for the sake of all the people of Ireland.”
Ms Marshall believes that if the move goes ahead many members of her group will be simply unable to continue visiting patients to provide important support services.
“We can only hope that this decision will be reversed,” she added. “Our group tries to stay positive and we laugh a lot but we also find ourselves despairing more and more.”
A report entitled ‘Patients Not Prisoners’ was recently published jointly by the CMH Carers' Group, the Irish Mental Health Coalition and Schizophrenia Ireland.
According to the 22-page report, the controversial co-location proposal does little to address the needs of patients.
“Co-locating the hospital with prison facilities is not in the best interests of the patients, and will further isolate the patients and impede their rehabilitation,” it reads.
“These factors are contrary to the Government’s stated policy on mental health and is against the spirit of international human rights law.”
In May 2006, the Government announced that the new mental hospital would be built at Thornton Hall, and that the cost of developing the hospital would be met from the proceeds of the sale of the existing site in Dundrum.
Jim Power, chief economist with Friends First was among the contributors to the scathing report.
He rubbished the argument that the co-location plan was a cost saving device.
“This decision makes no social or economic sense,” he said. “It would be far more sensible to sell some of the land at Dundrum and use this revenue to redevelop the existing site. We have seen nothing from the Government to support the economic case for this decision.
Continued on page 2Mr Power claims the Government is under pressure to prove how the co-location would be a financially, socially and therapeutically good move.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Health, the new hospital facility will provide a therapeutic, forensic psychiatric service to the highest international standards in a state-of–the-art building.
“Concerns have been expressed about the development of Thornton Hall, mainly on the grounds of isolation and proximity to the prison, that locating the hospital adjacent to the prison complex will lead to further stigmatisation of the mentally ill,” the spokesperson told Southside People.
“Views have been articulated that there must be clear boundaries between a hospital whose primary function is medical treatment and a prison whose primary function is incarceration and correction.
“However, the minister has stressed that the redevelopment of the CMH is a stand-alone project, independent of the new prison. It will have a separate entrance, separate road access and will be operated by the Health Service Executive.”

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