A new organisation, Minds Matter, representing mental health patients, held its first public meeting in Dublin yesterday.
The advocacy group, made up of existing and former psychiatric patients, has been established as a voluntary organisation to lobby on issues such as over-reliance on drug therapy, the lack of accountability in the mental health services and the social causes of mental illness.
At the meeting yesterday, which was World Mental Health Day, secretary of the new group Mr Declan Flynn said people with a mental illness have been let down by the medical profession.
"There are over 26,000 admissions to mental hospitals every year in this country," he said, "and 20,000 of those are repeat admissions."
He said he wanted the group to send out the positive message that people with a mental illness were taking responsibility for themselves and their treatment and were demanding their human rights.
Journalist and broadcaster Mr Vincent Browne and law lecturer Mr Tom Cooney described the treatment of patients in mental institutions as a human rights issue. Mr Browne talked of the scandalous treatment of patients and, in particular, the rundown conditions in mental hospitals.
Mr Cooney said that instead of giving human rights to patients, the Mental Health Act 1999 gives hospitals and the medical profession the right to override the decisions of competent mentally ill persons, particularly when it comes to enforced hospitalisation and medication.
Irish Times journalist Kathryn Holmquist spoke of mental healthcare as being undervalued and under-resourced, despite the booming economy.
The public meeting heard personal stories from individuals in the audience who had experienced mental illness. There was general support for the establishment of Minds Matter as a means of empowerment for patients.
Mr Flynn said the group's first task will be to carry out a comprehensive consultative process involving users of the mental health services.
In calling for an official charter of rights for mental health service users, the group is seeking a greater say for patients in the treatment they receive.
One aim of the group is to set up an independent advocacy service based within psychiatric hospitals to protect the interests of patients in the mental health system.
