Inclusivity Of The Vulnerable In Society And Empowerment

by Comyn - Social Justice and Respect for People Thu Oct 22, 2009 01:47

Michelle you covered a lot in this piece.

I conclude that your major priority is to see Baggot Street up and running as a hospital for people with divergent and vulnerable needs, focusing on the neuro-psychiatric linkage. The John Hopkins model, the fact that it exists over 100 years and also the funding from Philantropic sources makes for most interesting reading.

I think this could be a good idea. It's central location ensures it is linked to Universities lke Trinity, UCD, DIT etc.

Add to this some general information from the EU office on the provision of Science, it being at the service of Europe, who knows!

Comyn

by A Socialist - United we stand Sat Oct 24, 2009 16:05

Michelle,

well thought out posting. The buggies and mothers walked this week to the Dail. I hope this is not in vain. The Government must address the top earners category, and also review the capping on salaries and bonuses for people who are responsible for getting us into this mess.

We are now at the mercy, on a weekly basis, to the demands of the European Central Bank. We pay penalty interest rates on money borrowed.

This forthcoming budget will speak dividends on morals. We need a new direction even in the Trade Union mentality. Do people realise the salaries of some of these Trade Union officials - some earn as much as euros 135,000 to 175,000 a year and we all know about bonuses paid!!! My God - Where to now?

by Kemmy - Housing Tue Oct 27, 2009 17:48

Inclusivity is vital.

There are too many people in stressful situations these days. The homeless, sleeping in doorways, as we head for winter must be addressed. Many homeless are to be found in Dublin 2, 4 and 6 yet many houses albeit Georgian and Victorian are in rag order and if not vacant, hopelessly under utilised.

Where are the Greens on this issue? Where are the tax breaks and incentives for inner city under utilised properties. We want people accommodated. This is what Post Colonisation means for Dublin surely.

by Andrew Rice Wed Oct 28, 2009 17:55

It is interesting that, consciously or not, so much argument about the recession and its fallout is centre on Dublin. Cork, Limerick, Galway - the provinces in general have been hit in every village and town. Significantly - and this is not an attack on individuals - artists and writers have come out to put a 'militant' edge on their arguments against cuts in the arts' sector and have even been able to speak directly to the Dáil on the matter - presumably the Dáil thinks they are safer beings to have address them than farmers or other out-of-work workers. Yet few, if any artists, are coming out in solidarity with trades' unions and other workers' associations. Once again, they act as if they inhabit a different and more illustrious world where fatuousness passes for debate. Clearly too, the Dáil takes them more seriously than it's members do ordinary workers. So art-as-a-class-debate has begun and not for the first time. The current discourse with government about who should suffer cuts in living standards and who should not is a class struggle; clearly artists are seen to be a special class, nearer to the bankers and the economists than the ordinary working-class man or woman.

by Sibling - Community Thu Nov 26, 2009 17:35

Your posting makes a person think.

It is hard to imagine when you wrote this posting on October the 28th, that Ireland and in particular its rural areas would have suffered such an onslaught from weather conditions we have not encountered before.

Cork is badly affected but it is the countryside, the towns, the townlands.

Community spirit is tested beyond all expectations and old people are for the first time in their lives being forced to vacate their homes. Animals are suffering, people are suffering and yes it is on the Island of Ireland.

The Hope is that the Government will obtain some Aid and pass it on. However - already the aid given has pre-conditions and assumptions. There is a means test...and the assumption that people know 'how to ask for help'.

What can we Learn? Because realistically, this is all we can do at the moment. The people who are hands on are hands on and well done to them. For the rest of us watching on - we need to start thinking and activating plans for the future of the Island of Ireland taking serious account of Climate Change and giving it equal attention to that of the Financial Crisis that has so taken over our media and news sources via the spin of Politics these days.

Well done to the young girl in Co. Clare (she and others are waifs to the West County Hotel) who has decided to look out for the homeless animals and foster them until they can be sent back to their homes. You see there is hope and let us foster that hope and commend all those actively involved in trying to rectify that which to some People must represent the real Act of God.

Andrew - it looks like 'The Elephant in the Room' has made a Roar so Loud!

by Rainman - Tapping Talents and Accepting difficult employees Mon Dec 07, 2009 17:24

Scary article in the Irish Times today about mental health patients and involuntary ECT at the selection of the Medical Team.

You may think mental health is the glitzy part of the medical profession given the upbeat media coverage of groups involved in suicide, mental health for the youth programmes, and all the not for profit organisations representing people with mental health problems.

But let me assure you, there is a darker side and this headline in the Irish Times deeply concerns me.

Private medicine if you have a psychiatric condition has an element of transparency and ethics but the other side is not transparent. You may say about Regulation but the fact is that the Regulatory body, if you have been blessed with the lucidity to get that far is made up of the medical profession only. Also if you have mental health problems you need abe alert to the motives of your siblings and family members. This will be more apparent for some with experience of being the defined mental patient - the one who is left to fight the uphill battle and yet be lauded and taunted with the label.

The state provides the services of the Mental Health Commission but what can one say about a faceless organisation in Dublin 4 that is only represented by its all encompassing web page and an inability of its personnel to relate to visit from one of the 'Tainted' - yes the bothered and bewildered subset of society ranging from homeless, to former prisoners of either mental hospitals our or prisons, to those in community care and humbled by inadequate housing conditions and fear.

The Maudsley in the UK is a public Facility but then diversity in the UK always provides different dimensions.

The Sunday Times article 6th December in the Appointments Section makes interesting reading for those who differ from the so called Norm in Society.

The title simply reads 'Make a Maverick your wingman'. and the warning 'Handle with Care'.

This message is not for the benefit of private only mental health, it ought to equally apply across the board to our public mental health system.

Yes, posting no. 1 - what about Baggot Street, and a Psychiatric Hospital along the lines of John Hopkins in the US or the Maudsley in the UK or for that matter along the lines of successful private hospitals like the Priory. Where is the transparency in Mental Health in Ireland - yes the visibility factor. The research is hidden away in our Universities and basically after that is presented via conference links worldwide and through networks. The fodder is forgotten to easily.

The appointment section is promoting Vision in those making appointments in employment. It highlights that talented employees can 'be hard to control, so give them freedom and let them shine' The article is written by Frank Dillon. He talks about dealing with these employees and the huge problem they can create for management. They often are referred to as unpredictable and loose cannons but why forsake them! Why distance them out of society, condemning them to a form of mental health institutionalisation, when if given the encouragement and scope, they can link into creativity and create economic growth.

John Lennon spoke of Giving Peace a Chance. The Recession is so bad now, we really need to give these Mavericks a chance and who knows!! We are talking about harnessing talent and promoting creativity.

The Budget is this Wednesday. Savage is the word about town. But all I ask is stop the savage onslaught on the needy, look to the well of research done in our Universities over the last 20 years and starting using the material more productively and economically. Don't waste our hidden talent.

by Patch - Community Involvement Wed Sep 14, 2011 15:44

Indymedia Newswire articles can be searched on google via person's name and Indymedia.

This article is relevant possibly even more so when one consider's Vincent Browne's article about Suicide in today's Irish Times.

Yet another suicide convention has been held, and yes the numbers of suicides have reduced slightly this year, but I am gravely shocked and annoyed to hear that the Minister for Health Dr. James Reilly (formerly connected with St. Ita's Portrane i.e. mental hospital/asylum) dedicated only 10 minutes out of the half hour slot and then left the conference early. This is shameful and indicates that he too must look upon this as the Cinderella of Professions for the Cinderella's of society afflicted with neuropsychiatric diangnoses.

I wonder have any readers of Indymedia watched the two part series 'Behind the Wall's'. It takes courage to do so but if you have I plead with people to remove the stigma, include people who are vulnerable in our communities, and to be watchful of those who may need additional support every so often to battle through in this life.

Patch

by children_of_lyr Sat Sep 17, 2011 08:22

Patch,

Mary Raftery's two-part documentary "Behind the Walls" is available on youtube. I felt it was too deferential to psychiatrists and didn't go for the jugular in exposing where the real power lies. For example, the voice-over said that psychiatrists tend to agree rather than stating the inference: psychiatrists will not disagree - particularly, they will not go against the opinion of a forensic psychiatrist.

by Cinderella - Communities need to galvinize Sat Apr 14, 2012 15:26

Dublin 4 bandied across the media to imply elitism.

Truth is lots are in debt, more are fighting to keep their substandard flats in Pre 63 Victorian/Georgian houses, Elites on the Wealth list keep their houses vacant or for occasional use. Why is the human race so stupid? We knew in 2008 that breakers were ahead but instead we have continued to let the debt compound to non payable reality and lost out on community building using the positives that already have been achieved.

We are not Greece, we are not Spain, We are unique, we are the Island of Ireland and we could do with taking some spunk and courage from Iceland, a country with a geo political enticement to an over bureaucratic EU with its in built gravy train but well able to continue to hold out the carrot until they decide whether the EC route is their best option.

Cinderella refers to the Sick state of Baggot Street Community Hospital and the FAS Head Office - both are capable of creating centres of excellence that could employ people, be creative, have a vision and drive economic growth. The infrastructure exists. Philantropists exist.

A positive. At least Bank of Ireland have moved a lot of their staff to a NAMA building on Burlington Road ie Plaza 1, news has it that Sky have taken the other building. Form an urban identity. Baggotrath goes back to 17 century.

Reduce the rates so that Searsons can be re-opened by Diageo and so businesses are given the chance to survive. The people in this village are trying hard but need support from Government.

I note Bewley's now a haven for all again especially tourists is packed to the gills daily and they are going to look for a 50% cut in rent from some UK insurance company that owns the building. Vote with Feet time.

1980's recession had no infrastructure that now exists - it was a dismal time. Some men and maybe women had a dream. It was the IFSC, the dream worked until some got greedy but we need to sort the good from the bad and move on now.

by Brian Flannery - Justice Sun Apr 15, 2012 13:44

I don't know too much about the happenings around Baggot Street Community hospital but Social Inclusion is fine if you have money and private health care.

My knowledge from experience in relation to Baggot Street Hospital is appalling. They have a methodone clinic there each Monday and Tuesday and people with illnesses due to drug abuse are treated like criminals.

As for FAS - well the record they have speaks for itself. (Shane Ross unearthed yet nothing appears to have been achieved)

B Flannery

by skrypt_kyddie Wed Jul 11, 2012 13:40

"people with illnesses due to drug abuse are treated like criminals."

Most probably are. Get real. How else could an unemployed person possibly maintain a 100 euro a day habit??

Make all drugs legal, taxable and cheap, thus bringing in revenue, tourism, reducing policing and insurance costs in the capital, reducing petty crime, burglaries etc, wiping out drug barons and gangland criminals in one fell swoop.

Use revenue to introduce PROPER drug treatment programs and facilities for the poor.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Wed Jul 11, 2012 14:12

..but you're up against the vested interests of the ethyl alco mafia...and their disinformation campaigns(as in constantly equating cannabis with narcotics), to say nothing of the drug-cartel mega-moolah spliced into the 'white' economy and its political flunkies.

First thing you'd need would be objective media...a little-sighted rara avis in these corporate totalitarian days.

by Patch - Community Involvement Thu Aug 16, 2012 16:09

It is now August 2012 and the origins of these postings is back in 2009. Cinderella hospital stands in tatters, there is no longer the presence of a permanent medical team which one would expect to find in a hospital located so centrally. Thankfully, the chemists Boots and Meaghers provide such an efficient service but then this is private enterprise and it relates to markets. They relate to the peoples needs for profit.

Skrypt-Kyddie and Opus.
Addiction and vested interests - the great big paradox that the HSE/Government have to deal with. Who loses? Well we all know it is the vulnerable, those who get addicted or those who are deemed mentally ill. The Government prescription is scatter them, let them drift and who knows they may even become exports of life and thereby cost the government and the people of Ireland less. Already the UK media reports that the recession/depression is causing people to stigmatise and criticise those on disability payments as moochers/scroungers of hard working peoples' monies/taxes.

Can someone explain to me why the advisors to the Government are paid such inordinate amounts, well over £100,000 + over generous pension contributions with rights to retire in their 50's when living longer is causing Pension funds to re programme the pension policies they offer?

Then can someone explain to me why a group of civil servants could be sent for a month to Harvard at a cost of £10,000 + expenses? What can they tell the government that a whole coterie of people either out of work, or on disability or via citizen journalism or for that matter those at work but who are willing to give a propotion based on social good versus costed contribution/repayment.

Our fleeting national press, gives the odd snippet eg Minister Reilly and representatives from several organisations are on a mission to China! We have the recession - what can the Chinese add that we cannot learn from our own and for that matter from the EU office in Dawson Street and Google. Health is in crisis ad infinitum now and the Chinese given their human rights record could in fact learn from us surely! I think the reason is that the medical people seek greater engrandisement or maybe the paradox is that they may be encouraging the Chinese to come a work in the wounded HSE and low wages!

Mental health and addiction must not be swept under the carpet. As recession bites deeper and more people suffer, we need services to provide for young children especially and our citizens. Knowledge empowers and technology is better now than ever before, but we need to encourage people to use it. We do not need Government to waste resources. To anyone who really wants to explore neuro-diversity and the Brain, I highly recommend The Brain Series, Charlie Rose & Eric Kandel - Bloomberg TV.

Patch (a great admirer of Dr. Patch Adams)

by Chestnut - Community re-build Sun Aug 19, 2012 14:06

It is the only way. Individualism must yield to the common good otherwise we will never survive this economic war. The financial losses are apparent/transparent everywhere. There are ghost estates due to be demolished, there are the once oppulent bank buildings especially in D4 hiding behind closed doors waiting to be sold. Our hospitals are but skeletons now with staff working under pressure and for less. NAMA needs to enhance its scope. Social housing was insignificant during Celtic Tiger days but now we can redress it. 100,000 people are in need of accommodation yet there are many apartments/houses vacant. Time for Public Service (asleep mode) to put their foot on the accelerator, create an option, and house people accordingly. Rent Allowance should in fact be paid direct to the landlord by the State. During Tiger days, lots of landlords had real problems with people renting houses and not paying the rent for months on end leaving them in the hands of yet another bureaucratic nightmare the PRTB which again is quite toothless. Now when times are tough landlords have similar problems but very different reasons apply.

But spare a thought for those who are really in need. Listen, watch out. Spain has a Mayor who has taken on the vestiges of Robin Hood of Sherwood forest fame. Where are our Robin Hoods? If they believe that keeping their monies in tax havens and spending monies on charities in Ireland is their contribution to getting more effective use of their earnings, wake up, come home and let's rebuild this little Island of ours from within. Bono - you decided to move your funds abroad. It looks like you have taken the wrong advice and contrary to earlier press releases about Face Book, you are now reported to have lost half a million. Is there a lesson for Mr. Bono and other Haveneers to learn?

1980's Ireland, therecession was appalling. This time at least there is an infrastructure thanks to EU funding and entreprenneurs (some of who lost their way when influenced by greed). With the bad there is good. We need to take stock of our assets, look at our liabilities (see where we can negotiate with banks and the Troika to write-off parts of the debt mountain we have), and keep searching for new potential business, better education, maybe even consider the option raised when Dublin hosted the ESOF in July and join Cern - there are only 3 countries in Europe who have not, Ireland being one. They may even be prepared to give us a deduction. This would be a great move for our young people.

To Baggot Street Upper Village: If it is a case that Merrion Square be the new cultural HQ, then we are next on the list to create a community. What can be done with the Hospital? What can be done with FAS HQ? Leading companies like IBM, Google, entrepreneurs like Denis O'Brien, Michael O'Leary and others could be asked to create a hub like the Guinness hub on Southside City. We can revive the property by encouraging people to live in it as opposed to leaving so many vacant.

Help us formulate a plan!

Chestnut

by Erratum Sun Aug 19, 2012 15:58

Correction: Bono lost over 1/2 billion euros in Facebook

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Aug 20, 2012 09:51

Yesterday Edna lauds Mick Collins and vows a more egalitarian society...this morning FG proposes more cuts to Social Welfare pittances(gotta look after the Anglos) while announcing E4 million to restore The Quiet Man cottage in Connemara(owned by a Canadian or yank I believe)...

And you think O'Leary and O'Brien are the solution??Fucking absentee tax-exiles and sweat-extractors par excellence.

drop the chest...just leave it at nut.

Its not about entrepreneurs losing their fucking way..its about an economic paradigm designed to siphon the wealth of the planet into the pockets of insatiable gluttons. And we aint seen nothing yet. Read Greece for the forecast.

by Dingle Paddy - Turf cutters Mon Aug 20, 2012 13:23

First I want to say - Opus, I totally agree with you, Kenny stood at Beal na Blaith yesterday and gave a speech that would not arouse an ape on viagra. Now - ChestNut, get fuckin real. I live in Ranelagh, only when I have to, I walk through your so called HUB of wanker bankers, flat broke developers, and houses now not worth a cent.... You say, O'Brien could invest money in Baggot Street Upper Village! Take the nut out of that chest and have one long chew, it is a non starter. This country is flat broke because of people like O'Brien and to a lesser degree O'Leary. Opus, you also stand to be corrected. O'Leary may be a hard nosed bollox but he pays his taxes in Ireland and he employs approximately 650 people.

Now, the Fine Gael proposed cut backs in relation to social welfare is a crime in itself and Labour watch on with their mouths locked. Yesterday, if any of you saw the Sunday Indo, it stated that middle Ireland cannot take anymore austerity. I know people now who both work, have 1 child in a creche, and find it hard to put food on the table after paying all the bills. This is enough and this Government need to look around them and close down the elite group of quangos and the waste of taxpayers money. I agree to a point with Chestnut that we need to invest money in local areas especially in small business but first we must find this money and I suggest anybody who holds Irish citizenship ie O'Brien, Bono, McManus, and the rest should pay a Robin Hood tax when introduced by Government.

Right now, I am just taking a glass of chilled white wine in celebration of Bono's loss of £628 million last week re. Facebook. It is the best fuckin news I have heard all year that is apart from Katie Taylor's Gold medal.

Dingle Paddy

by Blueberry - Community Tue Aug 21, 2012 13:46

First I think the law should be changed in relation to rents (even if not by law, let landlords have a decent moral conscience and reduce them). This coalition bunch of chimps, if necessary, should bring in legislation to take the rents down and give small businesses breathing space to survive the worst recession in this State's history. We also need to interact with each other ie on the street, on a bus, in a hotel lobby - whatever it takes to bring back a sense of self will that will give us confidence that we can in fact come out of this recession against all odds, which sadly includes this Government and the last administration.

NAMA at the moment has taken on a whole new identity. First the Government should bring it back into the fold, break the back of its private club and its secrecy and stop the payments of £200,000 pa to gangster developers for their so-called co-operation. In any other jurisdiction they would be in jail by now. If anybody has a look at the Daily Mail today, it would make the puck goat puke! It gives the salaries of the heads of our bankrupt Co. Councils and the average salary is £148,000 (add to this expenses, pensions). This has to stop or I would rather have the Germans come in an run the country.

Blueberry

by Chestnut - Community Revival Wed Aug 22, 2012 13:53

These are the facts. Yet heads of charities like Rehab refuse to declare the earnings, their pensions, their perks. Add to these the bankrupt Co. Councils whose County Managers according to yesterday's Daily Mail earn in excess of average £150,000 + pension + perks, then tackle two main spenders of public money ie Education and Healthcare, the time has come to make an incision to the bureaucratic administration and cut out the rot. We need to seek out what they refer to in America as Healthcare Fraud.

How do we do this? It would help if we started and revive the concept of local and helping each other. D4 - make some enquiries. Yesterday I asked about 1 bed apartment near Percy Place. Several are interested @ a price £1,000 per month. Then ask about the coffee shops and how much they pay in rent. A ground floor basic is £50,000 to clear each year on average and add to this the penal rates from the Council. Take then the reduction in rent allowance, you know what's going on here. Let us starting airing grievances and making feedback work in this country.

ChestNUT (It is my season - roasting time)

by Matilda - Social Justice Sat Sep 08, 2012 15:16

Political, financial and moral obligations that apply to charities but yet are not adhered to is what comes to mind about the above posting.

Transparency if we read our newspapers indicates just what salaries are being paid to the chief executives of certain charities and all appear to be £100,000+, add the expenses, then the pension pots and some of these charity bosses are earning way beyond the Govt Ministers and their overpaid advisors and in certain cases like Rehab (where the woman has said No to media about her 'deal'), these select group of elites can be costing us $500,000 pa.

It is a beautiful day. Walking towards the Shelbourne, I saw a young child who had climbed the steps and created a little home of cardboard. There are too many vulnerable people on our streets. You ask and they are begging for money for the hostel. We need to ask questions about Focus Ireland and others. Do they promote this hostel lifestyle because they have a vested interest in it. There must be a different way of housing people or giving young people opportunities other than hostels that they spend the day begging for their keep.

Tax breaks so often are criticised. The middle class are suffering they say these days. Is there not a tax break of £10,000 approx if you take in a person into your home. They pay you for their room. This really is under promoted. Young people go to college and they get rooms. What about some of the young homeless people? It is a way of acquiring skills to live in a house and let's really cut hostel accommodation to a minimum. People with mental health problems suffer particularly in our society. How do we real stand down this stigma?

by Comyn - Primary care teams Fri Sep 21, 2012 15:52

The Promises:

Don't touch Psychiatric allocation to be used to effect the 'Vision for Change' for those shifted from mental hospital care out to community care, was the promise we thought we had from Minister Reilly and Minister Kathleen Lynch BUT NOW....it is forget the vulnerable, leave them to their own resources, it doesn't matter if they find refuge in hostels or even prisons...No it doesn't matter, let's just throw more money into what can only be called a bureaucracy which consumes funds to create tiers of management and clerical workers shuffling through offices creating bluff.

There must be an other way. Senator John Crown walks the walk, he also talks the talk and to me he seems to have that level of common sense that is not apparent from 18 months in office by the present contingent. Roisin Shorthall, Labour, gave a most rousing speech without managing to mention that She had confidence in Minister Reilly. What she did outline is the ruinous state of our health system.

Troika:

What can you do to help us with our £13.5 bn p.a inadequate health care system which is backed up by charities who are un-regulated but within their charge contribute half that amount (could this be so?) to the faltering health care system. You say we need to cut public expenditure but that is the easy part. Surely, you can step up to the mark and help us. For a start the problem with medication differential prices should not apply. By now the power of the EU in markets ought to dictate prices and make them common throughout EU countries. This would substantially reduce the cost in our health systems while at the same time keep manners on the MNC's who use our country for tax advantages and gently persuade us behind closed doors to maintain the monopoly over prices.

Common sense is telling those of us who are wise enough to buy our medications abroad even in the other jurisdiction on our Island. Fine for those who have a sufficient degree of health to do this, but certainly not for those of us have levels of ill-health and who are subject to uncertainties at whims which say more limited hours for carers/PA's.

Could I have understood this: I was told that it is within the powers of Enda Kenny Taoiseach to invite someone e.g. Mr. Crown from the Senate to be a Minister at Cabinet level?

Does anyone know if this is so:

by Contrarian Fri Sep 21, 2012 16:44

Yes, that is true. Up to two ministers can be appointed from the Seanad rather than the Dail. However they cannot serve as Taoiseach, Tanaiste or Minister for Finance. Happens rarely enough. Last was Jim Dooge in the 1980s FG/LAB government.

by Comyn - Building Communities - Baggot Street Sun Sep 23, 2012 16:59

Contrarian. Thanks for this info. It is my personal belief that the calibre of Senator John Crown is needed in the Cabinet.

Based on the foregoing, imagine my surprise to read an article in today's Sunday Business Post which states "Ireland not exploiting Irish American expertise".

This is what has been said by one of Wall Street's top financiers. It goes on to say that both the Govt and public sector need to cast off their reluctance to hear straight talking from people in other countries. Intel boss, Craig Barrett has offered to sit on the board of Irish state companies for free and guess what .... cronyism and jobs for the boys says No. They are too cosy with their perks, their expenses, their nepotism and cronyism. They fall into that category of management/board of directors mentality that should be long gone from our shores and this is 'Find me the person who can take my job says the new Managing Director to the Finance Director, and go fire him'.

Baggot Street Upper Village has the makings of a hub of activity and the head offices of so many Irish American links exist, please help us at grass roots level by giving us the structure to make us a hub of creativity.

Individualism needs to stand down for a while and it is time for us to start joining up the dots in a collective way. The people can do this.