Sir, - Muiris Houston's article The Irish Times, July 3rd) on how John Carthy was a victim of gaps in the healthcare system raised a number of extremely important points about our mental health services.
Schizophrenia Ireland is currently working with the British National Schizophrenia Fellowship, which provides comprehensive training to the country's police forces on working with people with severe and enduring mental illness. In partnership with the Garda, we hope to be able to introduce similar training modules in Ireland very soon. The Garda is in constant contact with people with mental illness (not always in relation to violent incidents) and it is vital that some understanding, skills and expertise are developed.
Dr Houston also rightly points to our outdated mental health legislation and mentions that a new Bill is making its way through the Dail. However, while the new legislation will strengthen some areas, unfortunately many gaps still exist. Our concern is whether we can generate enough interest among our elected representatives to have necessary amendments included to fill these gaps. Even then, the proposed legislation is extremely narrow in its focus and does not tackle the need for comprehensive community psychiatric services. Our members demand that a minimum level of service provision should be available to ensure people have access at all times to appropriate psychiatric supports.
Our psychiatrically ill people remain one of the most stigmatised, marginalised and under-resourced groups in this country. Many of our in-patientfacilities are a national disgrace - a fact pointed out year after year in the Inspector of Mental Hospitals report. It is time our inadequate psychiatric services became a priority - in 20 years' time, when we have another States of Fear, no one will be able to say: "I didn't know."-Yours, etc.,
Orla O'Neill, Director, Schizophrenia Ireland, Blessington Street, Dublin 7.