The Government must introduce legislation to protect children living with a person suffering from mental illness, a woman whose husband took his own life after killing their two daughters has said.
Una Butler from Ballycotton, Co Cork, said the welfare of children must “be paramount when someone is living under the same roof as somebody suffering with mental health.”
In an interview with RTÉ today she called for the Mental Health Act to be changed so that medical professionals were required to involve the partners and families of mental health patients in their treatment.
She said existing guidelines advising family members to get involved in the treatment of a loved one were “not enough for the welfare of children”.
“It needs to be set in stone… they have to be involved in the treatment. Children don’t have a voice when they’re so small and spouses should have to speak on their behalf.”
John Butler (43) died when he crashed his car into a ditch at Ballycotton, Co Cork, less than two hours after he had strangled his daughter Zoe (6) and suffocated his daughter Ella (2) at the family home at Ballybraher, Ballycotton, on November 16th, 2010.
His inquest heard he had been suffering from depression, for which he had received psychiatric treatment.
Ms Butler, who described her life as a “living nightmare” since the incident, said new legislation would “help to prevent reoccurring tragedies”.
When a mental health patient arrives into a GP or a hospital, the first question that should be asked is ‘are there children living at home?’ she said.
“And if there are, the legislation should be changed so that it’s mandatory that there is somebody sent out to assess the risk of children living there.”
Minister of State with responsibility for mental health Kathleen Lynch, said this morning she expects an expert group tasked with examining possible changes to the 2001 Mental Health Act to report by March 2013.
Ms Lynch said she had met Ms Butler on two occasions and had forwarded all correspondence from Ms Butler to the expert group and to the Mental Health Commission.
However, she added she was uncertain whether “you can put into legislation how clinicians can treat people that come to them for treatment”.
She continued: “If an issue comes up within treatment that would indicate that children are at risk, I don’t believe there is a clinician in the country that wouldn’t intervene or wouldn’t take steps to ensure that those children are safe.”