Mental Health Care in Louth, 1918 - 2018 and Beyond

national | health / disability issues | event notice Friday December 29, 2017 15:32 by Sean Crudden - Cooley Environmental and Health Group

Where have we come from? Where are we now? Where are we going?

The 18th annual winter workshop organized by Cooley Environmental and Health Group will start at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday 27 January 2018 in The Strand, Omeath, Co. Louth. It is expected to finish at 5:30 p.m. on the same day. Anyone who wishes to stay overnight should contact The Strand as soon as possible. +353(0)429375161. The theme of the workshop is Mental Health Care in Louth, 1918 - 2018 and Beyond.

The 19th century witnessed a massive expansion in large mental asylums, with the result that following population decline after the Famine we ended up being over-subscribed with facilities. There was therefore a tendency to put the mentally ill into institutions and to leave them there. Following international trends this situation was reversed in favour of deinstitutionalisation in the last quarter of the 20th century. This, for most patients, was a positive trend, but questions have begun to emerge about whether the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and whether deinstitutionalised patients now receive sufficient support.

This workshop will address past trends in mental health support, with particular emphasis upon Louth, and discuss what we need to do now to move forward.

The speakers will include:

• Dennis Pringle, Geographer
• Lisa Butterly, Historian
• Michael McCreanor, Retired Psychiatric Nurse and Local Historian
• Jim Walsh, Irish Advocacy Network
• Sean Crudden, Secretary IMPERO

The meeting will be divided into three groups for more intense discussion on selected topics before reporting back to the main meeting. The topics for discussion are:

• Depression
• Services
• Suicide

Professional opinion is welcome at the workshop although in a sense this will be a lay workshop. Personally I think modern professional opinion is apt to be monolithic and monotonous