Dr. Roy Browne:

I am an adult psychiatrist and was clinical director of services in west Dublin for quite some time. The demand for acute psychiatric beds has become acute.

The patients in the acute psychiatric units are incredibly unwell and generally are treated as an inpatient for as brief a time as possible because somebody else who is worse is waiting to get that bed. In a situation where a young child is being exposed to behaviours, which at times can be very bizarre - nobody wishes to hear about this - because people are extremely unwell, one has to accept that must be very damaging for a child.