De sunset in recent days.
From O’Connell Bridge, Dublin.
Thanks Andrew Holohan
Category Archives: Misc
Fiona Kennedy
You may recall how Fiona Kennedy, who has clinical depression and borderline personality disorder, wrote a piece last Wednesday.
It detailed how, after waiting eight months to begin dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) at the Adult Mental Health Services at Galway University Hospital, the mother-of-two was told the treatment would not be provided because of a lack of resources at the hospital.
On Friday, Fiona, from Connemara, Co. Galway, launched a crowd funding campaign to allow her access DBT.
Well.
Within 24 hours, she received enough money to fund almost a year of private therapy.
Further to this, Fiona has written the following open letter to all general election candidates.
Dear Candidates,
I did something yesterday that I never, in a million years, would have considered I’d have to do. I went looking for money from complete strangers. Why? Because of the phenomenal shambles that is our public mental health service.
I have borderline personality disorder (BPD) and depression, and have been blogging about both for years now. I have a good following on Facebook, and have received an unbelievable level of support from both platforms over the years, particularly during the last few months which have been incredibly tough.
Last week, I was told that a treatment that has been promised for months by the HSE (dialectical behaviour therapy/DBT) will not be going ahead. I can’t begin to describe the impact that this had on me, and on my family.
We had pinned all our hopes on this, as I have tried every other avenue I could to get to grips with BPD. We’re out of options, the only alternative left is to access private therapy.
The cost of attending a private clinical psychologist is immense, and it’s money that I simply do not have – I’ve been attending public services for years for a reason.
We found a psychologist who is able to offer exactly what I’m looking for, and has the capacity to take me on now, but there’s the not-so-insignificant factor of fees to be considered. After a lot of soul searching, we decided to try crowdfunding.
The response to this has been phenomenal.
In less than 24 hours, I’ve been given enough to fund almost a year of private therapy. The generosity of those who have donated has left me absolutely speechless.
This will quite literally change my life, and that of my family, it’s just incredible. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I genuinely feel like I’m going to be able to get a handle on all this.
My husband looks brighter than I’ve seen him in years. This money will give us so much more than just therapy, it will give us back our future.
However, while I’m beyond grateful, I’m also really angry. I should never have been put in the position of having to ask for money.
Treatment was promised, time and again, by the HSE. It’s such an indictment of our health services that this is how it has turned out, and at a time when we’re constantly hearing about keeping the recovery going. Mere days from the election, promises are still being broken.
I also realise how lucky I am to have been able to raise this money – between the blog and Facebook, I have people who are very familiar with my situation ready to help in any way they can.
What about the others who were promised DBT? What are they going to do? And this is just one programme, in one area. How many other programmes won’t be going ahead? How many other people are waking up today feeling like they have no hope left, no future?
If you’ve never felt that, you can’t begin to understand how terrifying it is, and I’m glad for those of you who just can’t identify with it. But for those who can – what will be done? Mental health is way down the priority list of so many of you, but this is not something that can be ignored any longer.
People are dying. When you’re already hanging on by your fingernails and hope is taken away, it’s far too easy to let go. This has got to stop.
Services have got to be more than just improved, they have to be completely overhauled. The way forward is clear, Mental Health Reform have done huge work in highlighting the changes that are needed. Why has it proven so impossibly hard to make those changes happen? What else will it take?
You have the opportunity now to make a real, lasting difference. There is so much kindness and energy in the country, people not only want to see change, they want to be part of making it happen.
So please, please, for all our sakes, and even more so for those who’ve been left struggling alone, do what needs doing.
Yours sincerely, and on behalf of everyone who needs help,
Fiona
Those who wish can donate to Fiona’s fund here or read her blog here
Previously: ‘I Have A Headache From Crying’
Aisling O’Neill, Meath East Soc Dem candidate (left), Stephen Donnelly TD and Glenna Lynch, Dublin Bay South candidate (right) with children (front) Isobel and Rory and (sitting in the back) Abel Balog and Maja Tazbir in Fitzwilliam Nursery and Montessori School, Herbert Street, Dublin 2 this morning.
Not the tykes.
The grown ups.
“We’re trying to get a message out on a fraction of the resources available. When the State broadcaster is essentially engaged in censorship of four of the eight political parties three days before the debate, it makes it very difficult.
So, we’re fighting against the State broadcaster’s position on protecting the establishment.”
Soc Dem co-leader Stephen Donnelly, on RTÉ’s decision to exclude four of the eight political parties from the leader’s debate tomorrow night.
Social Democrats ‘fighting against RTÉ censorship’ (Breakingnews)
Rollingnews
Meanwhile,
Yesterday,
Social democrat candidates and canvassers on Grafton Street, Dublin, including ‘sheet columnist Anne Marie McNally (centre) and Gary ‘tracking shot‘ Gannon (second right)
He’s veering right!
From left: Catherine Murphy, Roisin Shorthall (with unidentified chocolate Lab) and Stephen Donnelly on Grafton Street yesterday.
Rollingnews
Emily McGardle writes:
I am a fourth-year Fine Art student in DIT [Dublin Institute Technology] and am currently working on a print-based project about the general election.
Every week since the beginning of January (and until the end of April), I have and will be making a screenprint in the style of a mock front page of a newspaper entitled “The Recovery” which presents an overview of each week’s political news and events.
Each will be printed in an edition of 100, and will be on show in the DIT graduate exhibition in June….
Inter species hook-up: the mascot that brings pleasure to thousands, and Chompsky (left).
‘sup?/G’day
You may notice some advertising for a change for Deliveroo on the ‘sheet?
That’s because Broadsheet are the FIRST Irish website to become an affiliate partner with Deliveroo.
The deal means that it’s the last throw of the dice let’s face it Deliveroo will pay the ‘sheet for every reader that uses their service.
The more you eat the more we eat.
We take a sip of your milkshake. You drink the majority of it.
Are we disrupting the online advertising industry and indeed supply side economic theory or are we…hey, are you eating/having that?
Stevan Popovic, Affiliate Partnerships Manager at Deliveroo, sez:
“We’re very excited to be working with Broadsheet.ie as an affiliate partner, our first one in Ireland. We’re always looking to work with local partners and are always producing content with a distinctly Irish flavour and humour. We look forward to a flourishing partnership.”
*looks up meaning of ‘affiliate’*
Fupp yeah.
Any Broadsheet readers (in Ireland or the UK) inclined to use our affiliate Deliveroo should click in the image below or this link.
Oh.
Tesco, Dublin 7
The Scarlet Phibsbrenel notes..
Every little helps…who!? Tesco supporting Witch-doctor cult, UCKG again. The little tykes in Phibsborough need new robes for their exorcisms, brainwashings etc.
Fight!
Olympian
at
Wait for it.
Laura Gaynor writes:
Great video by Dublin videographer Christian Tierney (uploaded this morning) with Gavin James [performing new single Haze) at the Olympia [Dublin]. Worth a watch…
Gavin James
A reggae-fueled promotional video from TV3 ahead of Vincent Browne’s 40th – and final – People’s Debate tonight.
Jah Rastafari bumbaclot.
*jogs on the spot*
Thanks Sarah Geoghegan and Robert Keane
A letter sent from former IBRC chairman Alan Dukes to Finance Minister Michael Noonan on February 14, 2013
You may recall how Mr Justice Brian Cregan was appointed to carry out a Commission of Investigation into IBRC on June 16, 2015.
One of the terms of reference is “whether the Minister for Finance or his Department was kept informed where appropriate in respect of the transactions concerned, and whether he, or officials on his behalf, took appropriate steps in respect of the information provided to them.”
The commission’s establishment followed Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy asking Finance Minister Michael Noonan questions about the sale of Siteserv to a company owned by Denis O’Brien.
Further to this.
The former chairman of IBRC Alan Dukes sent a letter to Finance Minister Michael Noonan on February 14, 2013 – a week after IBRC went into liquidation.
This letter was obtained from the Department of Finance by Ms Murphy, following a Freedom of Information request.
Readers will note there were three sentences redacted in the letter of February 14, 2013.
Following an appeal to the Information Commissioner, the commissioner annulled the decision of the department to redact these sentences.
It found the manner in which the Department had processed the request “most unsatisfactory” and not in keeping with the statutory provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.
Further to this, Justine McCarthy, in yesterday’s Sunday Times, reported:
The Sunday Times has established that the three missing sentences from Dukes’s letter are:
“1. The Department of Finance has at all times been provided with all papers presented to the board;
2. The Department of Finance has been entitled to have an observer at every meeting of the board;
3. The minutes of all committee meetings were systematically provided to the Department of Finance.”
…The ruling by Stephen Rafferty, an investigator in the information commissioner’s office, was made on February 8 but only made public last Thursday. The department has until March 1 to lodge an appeal to the High Court.
…When told what the redacted portion of Dukes’s letter says, Murphy replied: “It’s strange the department would have redacted that. It obviously gives a clue about something. There seems to be a surprisingly small amount of information [available] about the relationship between the department and the bank, given how bad we know that relationship was.
“The information commissioner was quite scathing about the department and the fact they are taking their time about whether they’ll release it or lodge an appeal indicates there is not a culture of openness there.”
Anyone?
Revealed: Hidden claims over IBRC liquidation (Justine McCarthy, Sunday Times)
Clear Haze writes:
“Recently a well-known comic musician from Limerick described his generation as either getting on planes or jumping in rivers. With a suicide rate of about twice the national average, Limerick City is an extreme example of the national mental health and suicide crisis.
Jack Olohan met with the Corbett Suicide Prevention Patrol to discuss their work and the problems being faced on a daily basis. In the run-up to the election the issue of mental illness and suicide rates in Ireland must be clearly addressed.”
Previously: My Generation
Earlier: Facebook Update