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Carers voice concerns over mental hospital relocation

Thursday, 31 July 2008

A CARERS’ group campaigning against the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) to Thornton Hall met with the Oireachtas Health Committee earlier this month to discuss their concerns.
The Central Mental Hospital Carers Group called on the Oireachtas to reverse the decision to relocate the hospital to the same site as the proposed ‘superprison’.
According to group spokesperson Kaye Marshall, the controversial move would impede the rehabilitation of patients.
“Such a location is not suitable for a hospital whose ethos is treatment and rehabilitation in the community,” she said.
“Those with mental illness are already stigmatised in our society. Locating the national forensic psychiatric hospital beside a prison will, in effect, be a public policy endorsement of this stigma.
“The Government has argued that the CMH should be located beside a prison as many of the patients come from the prisons or through the court system.
“This thinking is, at best, based on administrative convenience. It fails to acknowledge the fact that it is because of their mental illness that such patients come into the criminal justice system in the first place.”
In May 2006, the Government announced that the new CMH 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.
However, according to Susie Doheny of the carers’ group, this move is not in the best interest of patients.
“We were not looking for sympathy nor were we making an emotional plea to the Government,” she stated.
“Our argument against locating the hospital on or adjacent to a prison site is firmly based on the principles for best international therapeutic practice and on the Government’s own policy on mental health.”
Ms Doheny added: “We are ordinary parents, not professional lobbyists. Our only objective is to work towards getting the best possible care for our relatives who are amongst the most vulnerable in the health care system.”
The Department of Health claims the new hospital facilities will provide a therapeutic, forensic psychiatric service to the highest 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,” a department spokesperson told Northside People.
“Views have been articulated that there must be clear boundaries between the hospital whose primary function is medical treatment and a prison whose primary function is incarceration and correction.
“However, the Minister stressed that the redevelopment of the CMH is a stand alone project independent of the new prison. It will have a separate road access and will be operated by the Health Service Executive.”

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