July 23, 2010
Mental Health
Partnership produces mental health product
Evening Echo (Mon, 19 July 2010)
“Mind Your Head” is a new resource developed by the HSE South and Youth Work Ireland to help those working with young people to talk about mental health issues. The resource is designed specifically for youth workers, youth leaders, peer educators and others working with young people and was set up three years ago as a response to particular needs expressed by local young people around self harm and mental health.
Mental Health Service
Psychiatric units suffer rise in assaults amid staff shortages
Irish Independent (Tue, 20 July 2010)
Physical assaults in mental hospitals and psychiatric units have increased by 36pc in the space of three years, as the sec-tor struggles to cope with a crisis in staff levels.
Act gives 'far too much power' to psychiatrists
Irish Examiner (Tue, 20 July 2010)
Doctors need to sit down with people who feel they have been abused and harmed in the mental health system and see how it can be changed for the better, the clinical director of the West Cork mental health service has said, Dr Pat Bracken, a consultant psychiatrist who has worked in the field of mental health for 27 years, said it was time for society to engage in an open and frank debate about how mental illness is treated.
Mental Ill Health
Nutrient therapy for mental illness
Irish Medical Times (Fri, 23 July 2010)
The science of epigenetics may hold the key to our understanding of mental illness and behavioural disorders, Dr Bill Walsh tells Aoife Connors
The world truly a grey place for the depressed
Evening Herald (Wed, 21 July 2010)
Scientists believe a new eye test could provide an objective way of measuring depression levels. Depression has an effect on the eyes that makes it harder to detect the black and white contrasts. Researchers in Germany carried out tests on the retinas of patients which showed the effect.
Experts slam use of drugs to mentally ill
Irish Examiner (Mon, 19 July 2010)
People with mental illnesses who are not improving are being "contained" with medication in mental health facilities which do not provide them with any solution for their condition, mental health lawyers have warned. Chairman of the Mental Health Lawyers Association, Mark Felton, who represents people involuntarily admitted to psychiatric hospitals, said there is no low-security forensic unit in the country to deal with them.
