A MENTALLY ill patient had spent nearly 2,000 hours in seclusion while being held as an involuntary patient at St Luke’s Psychiatric Hospital in Clonmel, a judge has been told.
The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was locked up for more than 100 hours at a time and yesterday described his eventual transfer to the Central Mental Hospital, in Dundrum, Dublin, as “my salvation”.
The man, who has been locked up for more than a decade, told Circuit Court president Mr Justice Matthew Deery that because of the cocktail of drugs he was given while in Clonmel, he was grossly overweight when he arrived at Dundrum.
“I was a bad case of overweight as a result of all the medication I was taking at Clonmel and I had protested about the amount of drugs they were giving me,” he said. “The complete story of my treatment in Clonmel has not been told in this court today.”
The St Luke’s psychiatric unit at the Clonmel Hospital came in for serious criticism by the Mental Health Commission in 2009 for the unnecessary use of patient seclusion and the locking of ward doors.
The commission attached conditions to the continued operation of St Luke’s and directed the Health Service Executive to produce a plan with precise timescales to address the breaches in regulations.
Amnesty International called for an urgent independent investigation into all of the individual cases, which included fracture injuries.
Barrister Sara Phelan, appealing a Mental Health Tribunal decision to detain her client, said he had regained his normal weight and believed, as a result of improved treatment in Dundrum, he could be allowed to resume his life in the community.
“I am mentally well, relaxed in myself and I would have a lot of close family support. I have completed 297 pages of my memoirs and I can assure the court I will continue taking my new medication,” he said.
A consultant psychiatrist said the man did not accept he had a mental illness. He suffered from schizophrenia and could prove a risk to himself or others if he broke with his medication regime. He could not recommend his release.
The doctor said in Clonmel the patient had spent nearly 2,000 hours in seclusion during 19 periods of lone detention. Due to a new treatment regime since transferring to Dundrum in 2008 he had spent only one period in seclusion and had moved from a high security unit to a more relaxed secure unit.
Mr Justice Deery said the patient concerned was a talented man who believed he was getting on very well compared to his previous experiences at St Luke’s in Clonmel.
While he had made progress, the court, on the evidence of the consultant psychiatrist, could not overturn the decision of the tribunal.