Attitudes from the bad old days, especially where mental illness is concerned, are alive and thriving in our society. Vulnerable citizens, who have been locked up to prevent them doing further injury to themselves or to others, are being treated in a demeaning manner and in conditions that are unacceptable.
A report on the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum in Dublin, where patients from psychiatric hospitals and the prison service are cared for, is an indictment of us all.
For decades, old people have been badly treated in nursing homes. Our prison system is antiquated and retribution-driven. But the regimes and activities in those institutions pale in comparison with the structures under which many mentally ill patients have been forced to live after they are committed to Dundrum. Reports from visiting committees for at least 30 years have called for reform and modernisation. That is gradually taking place. But Government plans to relocate the complex to a new prison site at Thornton Hall in north Co Dublin may criminalise the hospital and stigmatise the service.
Some of the most distasteful customs at Dundrum, such as slopping out their rooms by patients, have been discontinued. And the practice of locking up inmates for extended periods has diminished. But a report from the Mental Health Commission criticised the blanket policy of locking patients in their rooms at night, irrespective of levels of risk, and for delays in allowing them out to use the toilet.
The treatment of women was singled out for particular stricture, as was the monitoring of private communications by members of staff, even though this may infringe the civil and legal rights of inmates.
It is clear from the report that practices within the hospital are in need of reform in order to respect the dignity of individuals and to provide focused, individual care for patients. Two out of five inmates have been locked up for five years or more. Some of them may never be released. In such circumstances, we have a moral obligation to make their lives as tolerable as possible. Ease of administration and staff preferences should not be allowed to frustrate that objective.
Standards of care have improved. And some of the old buildings have been refurbished. But plans to build a modern complex at Dundrum were scrapped by the Government in 2005 in favour of moving it to Thornton Hall. It is a penny-pinching exercise. Sale of the valuable site will realise more than the cost of a new hospital. But moving it to a prison complex will perpetuate old prejudices. These citizens deserve better.