Ms Jennifer Hough:

I echo what Dr. Brosnan said. The minute someone in Ireland comes into contact with mental health services or even a GP, drug treatment is the first line treatment. It does not matter whether it is depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

No matter where a patient's ailment falls on the spectrum, drug treatment is the answer. My sister was on four or five different medications at one time. We talk about access to services. My sister was lucky enough, if that is the right phrase, to access private services in Ireland, which meant she was put on even more drugs than she would have been in the public service. It is crazy. She was left walking around unsupervised and unmonitored while on four or five antipsychotic medications. We call them antipsychotics but they are really just tranquilisers. An antidepressant could be thrown in too. Those medications are seen to be working if the person plateaus back to a baseline. They are working the way they are meant to work. They dampen the person's emotions, numb them and make them able to be a normal person who can walk around in society but that is not getting to the core problem. Of course, that is why we have a revolving door system. People are taking drugs that are only maintaining them. It is an enormous problem and unless we get to grips with it, people are never going to achieve their human rights. Some people are lucky enough to recover but it is very difficult. One cannot challenge accepted notions and say the drugs are a problem because there is no mechanism for patients to taper off their drugs within the current system. The British Psychological Society produced an excellent paper last year intended to help professionals to help people taper off their medication. We have nothing like that in Ireland yet. We need to be able to support people to come off their medication but, of course, other resources are then required to support them, including talk therapies and all of that. This is crucial. It is a topic about which I am very passionate. It is at the core of everything. We just give people medication and that is it. I could go on but I will leave it at that.