Internet, digital, broadband, social media the potential is vast for people and all I can do is quote Jonathan Swift and say

‘Give Vision to the Visionless’.

Personally, my vision is a centre for excellence based on where Psychiatry merges with Neuroscience and Twitter is integral to this.  My case history explains why.

1993 while horse riding in Zimbabwe I fractured my skull.  The journey through services makes me a consumer of healthcare and a person with some vision.

Many promises have been made by Politicians concerning this hospital and the provision of community healthcare; this letter dating back to 2009 outlines a negligence and neglect for providing for vulnerable people especially those affected with neurological, psychiatric and addiction health diagnoses.  October 5th to October 9th 2015 is Mental Health Week and never more than now is it necessary for their to be a joint venture commitment to tackle the Cinderella of Professions Psychiatry and move forward.  Ireland urgently needs a centre of excellence and the Royal City of Dublin Hospital has the potential.  All we need is Mr Jack Dorsey’s vision and Twitter Ireland.

Tapping Talents and accepting difficult employees 

Scary article in the Irish Times today about mental health patients and involuntary ECT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy at the selection of the Medical Team.

You may think mental health is the glitzy part of the medical profession given the upbeat media coverage of groups involved in suicide, mental health for the youth programmes, and all the not for profit organisations representing people with mental health problems.

But let me assure you, there is a darker side and this headline in the Irish Times deeply concerns me.

Private medicine if you have a psychiatric condition has an element of transparency and ethics but the other side is not transparent. You may say about Regulation but the fact is that the Regulatory body, if you have been blessed with the lucidity to get that far, is made up of the medical profession only. Also if you have mental health problems you need to be alert to the motives of your siblings and family members. This will be more apparent for some with experience of being the defined mental patient – the one who is left to fight the uphill battle and yet be lauded and taunted with the label.

The state provides the services of the Mental Health Commission http://www.mhcirl.ie/ but what can one say about a faceless organisation in Dublin 4 that is only represented by its all encompassing web page and an inability of its personnel to relate to a visit from one of the ‘Tainted’ – yes the “bothered and bewildered” subset of society ranging from homeless, to former prisoners of either mental hospitals our or prisons, to those in community care and humbled by inadequate housing conditions and fear.

The Maudsley Hospital (Psychiatric) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maudsley_Hospital in the UK is a public Facility but then diversity in the UK always provides different dimensions.

The Sunday Times article 6th December in the Appointments Section makes interesting reading for those who differ from the so called Norm in Society.

The title simply reads:

‘Make a Maverick your wingman’  and the warning ‘Handle with Care’.

This message is not for the benefit of private only mental health, it ought to equally apply across the board to our public mental health system.

Yes, posting no. 1 – what about Baggot Street, and a Psychiatric Hospital along the lines of John Hopkins Hospital http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/ in the US or the Maudsley in the UK or for that matter along the lines of successful private hospitals like the Priory Group http://www.priorygroup.com/. Where is the transparency in Mental Health in Ireland – yes the visibility factor? The research is hidden away in our Universities and basically after that is presented via conference links worldwide and through networks. The fodder is forgotten to easily.

The appointment section is promoting Vision in those making appointments in employment. It highlights that talented employees can ‘be hard to control, so give them freedom and let them shine’ The article is written by Frank Dillon. He talks about dealing with these employees and the huge problem they can create for management. They often are referred to as unpredictable and loose cannons but why forsake them! Why distance them out of society, condemning them to a form of mental health institutionalisation, when if given the encouragement and scope, they can link into creativity and create economic growth.

John Lennon spoke of Giving Peace a Chance. The Recession is so bad now, we really need to give these Mavericks a chance and who knows!! We are talking about harnessing talent and promoting creativity.

The Budget is this Wednesday. Savage is the word about town. But all I ask is stop the savage onslaught on the needy, look to the well of research done in our Universities over the last 20 years and starting using the material more productively and economically. Don’t waste our hidden talent.  Pls note again this is written 2009.

Conclusion:

This was 2009, pre the Budget.  Next week is the 2015 Budget and what has been achieved.  For mental health yes a proliferation of charities and events but as far as proper public health is concerned, the situations are worse and getting worse.

Professor D Coakley Trinity College Dublin, where are you now?  The HSE have deliberately run down the Royal City of Dublin hospital and it is up for sale.  They are hoping to get e14 million and then they will probably allocate e5 million to Community Health in South Dublin.  We know these promises only too well.  Where is Minister Kathleen Lynch who knows only too well that if anyone is to be short-changed, it is surely going to be those under the mental health provision http://www.labour.ie/kathleenlynch/. Already this beautiful hospital is stripped of what defined it?  Why?  Afraid that someone might say this is a World War 1 memorial.  We are approaching the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.  The British Empire capitulated to the Irish Republic and this hospital straddles both.