Chrysalis

2012 is the most important year in Irish mental health.

As I write this there are well intentioned and well meaning people preparing for a meeting at the Amnesty Ireland HQ. The meeting is made up of the voluntary bodies who lobby for those with intellectual disabilities, brain acquired injury, Alzheimer’s and dementia as well as mental health. Mad Pride Ireland has and is part of this conversation, a conversation hoping to influence the governments proposed ‘Capacity’ legislation.

2012 is a very important year, Kathleen Lynch TD, our straight talking and good hearted Junior Minister is reviewing the Mental Health Act 2001. Alan Shatter TD, our Justice Minister, is looking to introduce ‘Capacity’ legislation. Both of these pieces of work will have a significant and long standing effect on Irish mental health and for those unfortunate enough to have to use the system. If we do not get these two pieces of work right we may not have the chance to change them again for a decade.

Mad Pride Ireland yet again finds itself on the outside shouting in. The consensus position seems to be ‘Once capacity is lost how do we best help the individual make a decision?’ This in itself is not a controversial statement.

Take an individual with Alzheimer’s or a severe brain acquired injury, they have lost the full functionality of there brain and their capacity to make decisions has been affected. Therefore, ‘facilitated decision making’ or ‘substitute decision making’ in these cases are a useful and necessary care tool.

However, take a person suffering stress from a life occurrence. Ask yourself has this person ‘lost’ their capacity or are they suffering from emotional distress that has put them in a dark place? Yes they may be making decisions that others feel are not ‘in their best interests’ but they have not lost the capacity to make those decisions.

Remember mental health deals with our emotions, it attacks our spirit not our system.

Mad Pride Ireland has in the recent past challenged the Irish College of Psychiatry to test, analyze and publish the results that will definitively and clinically prove so called ‘mental illness’ as a disease, they have not taken up the challenge, they have not because they can’t, no such tests exist.

Stress, mental illness or mental I’ll health whatever you want to call it is not a disability, it is not a disease and should not be discussed in the same space as these other groupings. We are presenting our own draft policy on ‘Capacity’ to the Oireachtas. One that we feel best represents the needs and rights of the mad community. A policy who’s starting point is to reinforce a persons capacity and not dilute it.

We realize this may not be popular among some of our peers, but hey who said doing the right thing has ever been popular.