Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have a difficulty where we apply a directive in one instance and not in another. We currently have a situation whereby people who need the support of the system, with all its good aspects and its flaws, rather than volunteer themselves for full transparency to get a fully comprehensive treatment, will pay lip service just enough to get by, because to volunteer the truth of what is really happening for them may lead them to a place where they are completely and utterly disempowered. Without having protection and a voice in every scenario that may arise, we will have people repeatedly going back into the system because they are not getting the full treatment.

If I believe and look as though I have a broken arm, I may deny it because I am afraid of what the consequences will be. Thus, I will not have an X-ray or even describe the situation and I will just look for paracetamol to patch it up as a short-term solution, because I am afraid to enter into a system.

Here, we are codifying a two-tiered system and we are putting in place an incentive for people not to get the proper treatment and just to get a little bit of a patch to get them over a situation when they most need treatment. We run the risk of people not disclosing in their own interests because they are afraid of the consequences.

This is the difficulty of moving ahead without mental health reform. I worry about that and the considerable power imbalance between even the most professional and fantastic psychiatrist and a person on the other end of that.Even the most well meaning sentences can be found and experienced as threatening. If a person is in that situation, someone might say, “We can get a child protection order if this comes to it”, in an incredibly compassionate and well meaning way. However, that would not be how I would hear it if it were said to me. Again, I would have concerns around this.