This morning.
An official inspection has found that almost one fifth of Health Service Executive residences for people with enduring mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities “were in such poor condition that they showed disrespect for the dignity of the people living in them“.
According to the report’s author Dr Susan Finnerty, Inspector of Mental Health Services::
There are continuing breaches of human rights:
The right to privacy
The right to a clean well maintained accommodation
The rights of service users to choose where they would like to live
The right to independent living with appropriate supports
And the right to access appropriate care and treatment through access to rehabilitation and recovery services.
Dr Finnerty concluded:
There are over 1,200 vulnerable people living in 24-hour supervised residences. I cannot stress enough the need for these residences to be regulated to protect the safety of people who live in them.
Regulation would allow the Mental Health Commission to enforce changes where deficits and risks are found, protect the human rights of people living in these residences and help mental health services to provide care and treatment in accordance with best practice standards.
Report finds lack of privacy, dignity in many mental health centres (RTÉ)
Babies, the elderly, the mentally ill, the poor, the homeless……even animals.
If you judge a society by how it treats its weakest members then Ireland has failed, spectacularly and continues to fail and will continue to fail.
€1000 says we will see a repeat of scandals relating to my first line there within the next 12 months and it will keep happening. Another ‘scandal’ with elderly care, another ‘scandal’ with creches or similar, another ‘scandal’ relating to those with mental health issues and by scandal I mean abuse of vulnerable people. And on and on and on and on and on.
It will never end.
Because we let it happen by voting in people who will not take the necessary action to prevent it.
Well said IanO.
We’re a sham of a society, and it’s disgusting and utterly shameful.
you’re not wrong, but it’s not just the weakest members. There are failings at all levels to all groups. Look at the Cervical care, look at the tracker mortgage scandal, look at the thousands of shifty landlords.
Most Irish people don’t seem o give a fupp about doing a good job, there is no pride in doing the right thing.
+1 for Cian. Another great point
+Ian-O
So what do we do?
Seriously. What can the ordinary person on the Clapham Omnibus actually do about it on a practical level?
Is there someone else we can vote for that will be able to affect change quickly? like really quickly?
Can we lead a coup? (obviously, just kidding here).
(honestly, just kidding).
Can we do something concrete to stop this kind of thing happening in the future? And in the meantime, do something about the Climate Emergency, about Brexit, about global politics, about the rise of the Alt-right, about anything?
What?
All you can do is the right thing yourself.
Trying to force people to do the right thing leads to stuff like soviet famines or great leaps forward or ‘Terrors’.
But do so in the knowledge that things may not improve (although to be fair, what we consider atrocious these days would have been Utopian in the 1920’s or 30’s), things may even get worse but keep plugging away at the right thing as much as you can. Thinking you can make large scale change is laughable, you can’t, nobody can. Even people on Trumps level have found that there are limits to all power.
There really isn’t much else you can do?
Write to your TDs and Senators to demand change. And keep on writing.
Visit them in their constituency clinics to demand change. And keep on visiting them.
Don’t vote for people or parties who promise to slash taxes and cut welfare, because this is the inevitable result.
Two of the four TDs in my constituency (Sligo-Leitrim) voted not to even allow a referendum on repealing the 8th, so I’m not sure they’re the best people to talk to about demanding change!