Ms Molly Joyce:

My colleague may have more insight into the specifics on mental health. It is a good and a big question. Some of the things that have come from this report made me think and it kind of challenges how we think about punishment and what we are doing. I imagine there are situations, and it can arise, where someone has perhaps committed a crime when they were not, by legal definitions, of sound mind, or whatever phraseology one wants to use for that, and then even by the time that they get to the trial and perhaps are found not guilty by reason of insanity, they are of sound mind. I am using that term because it is how we might describe it in the law. Yet, we still will end up in a situation where those people might end up being sent to the CMH even though they may have recovered. There are examples within the report, and Ms Ní Chaoimh might be drawn on those a bit more, of some people commenting on situations where someone may have been on bail on the offence, they go to court and are then sent to the CMH. However, they have been on bail and completely fine for two years and getting help and treatment in the community and then sent to the CMH. It is a bit of a question mark - if they have already recovered, why are they being sent to the CMH? That is what I mean about the questions around punishment. Are we actually doing it because we have to do something if someone has committed a very serious crime and we cannot possibly just let them out into the community? Okay, that is fine, but that is something quite different from saying that we are doing it for their benefit and to treat them. That is a big question.

On recovery and rehabilitation, an issue that has come out in the report and that we would definitely be aware of, and Ms Flynn pointed to it, is the lack of resources within the community for that kind of support. Specifically, one can talk about step-down facilities from the CMH. From my understanding, that is a big issue with the capacity to date. The new CMH has a new intensive care rehabilitation unit with 30 spaces, which is welcome. That is all a coercive system, but is a more welcome system in that it would get people out of that very confined situation and back into the community. However, again, that only has 30 spaces. That is welcome, but probably will not address those capacity issues and provide the kind of support that is needed within the community to properly get people living freely within the community with those supports.

It is a bigger question, and what the report kind of points to as well, is this idea that if we keep focusing on the institutional responses, prison and the CMH, we will never redistribute those resources to the community, which is where they could possibly be more effective. It is quite a big thing to achieve, but that is kind of where the report is in terms of recommending where we go.