Sir, - I was absolutely disgusted to read about the vandalism of Carlton House near Swords, Co Dublin over the weekend and equally to see local residents picketing the centre with placards reading "No facilities for the patients" (The Irish Times, February 5th). How on earth can such small-minded ignorance still exist in the 21st century and in the light of the good work that has been done by such agencies as Aware and Schizophrenia Ireland?
Residents of the area are apparently concerned that the Carlton House will bring people (and, yes, we are talking about people) who are "by their very nature unstable" into the community. True, mental illness usually involves a certain degree of instability in mood, thought or action, but only in very, very rare cases are sufferers dangerous to anyone other than themselves. Equally, those psychiatric patients who would be considered to pose any kind of threat to the safety of others would undoubtedly be held in a locked ward of a hospital and not housed in the community.
Some people, like those in Swords, obviously assume all of us who suffer from mental disorders to be vicious psychopaths who should be locked up with the key thrown away. This can be the view only of those who are completely ignorant of modern psychiatry and psychiatric illnesses. Granted, I am not a healthcare professional (though I hope to be some day) but I have ample experience of psychiatric hospitals and of day-today life with an incurable mental illness. Coping is not easy but I, like thousands of others in this country, take my medication and try to live as normally as possible. I can guarantee the residents of Lispopple that if they passed me or many of my similarly afflicted friends in the street they would never guess that we were "unstable".
Just one other thing: with mental illness of all kinds on the increase in Ireland (for example, one in three people in this country suffers from depression), it would be worth the picketers' while to realise that one day either they themselves, a family member, or a friend will be in need of psychiatric care. Fact. - Yours, etc.,
Mary Carton, Cook Street, Dublin 8.