Madam, - Breda O'Brien's article (Nov 11th) calling for a debate on mental health was heaven sent. However, her caveat that "it has to begin with recognising the reality of mental illness" is nonetheless limiting. Her comments are a slap on the wrist for Minister of State Tim O'Malley for having "declared" in the Irish Medical News that "there's a very strong view with a lot of people that depression and mental illness is not a medical condition, that it's part of life's events that people get depressed or get unhappy".
Thank you, thank you, Mr O'Malley, no truer words have ever been spoken by a member of Government. Words that will resonate with millions. He dares to point to the huge faultline running through the medical approach to those suffering with mental distress.
We don't need the pharmaceutical industry to tell us what causes mental distress. The roots of serious mental distress are inseparable from abandonment, physical and sexual abuse, family breakdown, substance misuse, financial worries, school and work pressure, bullying, life-threatening illnesses, ageing and the titanic sense of being overwhelmed that sensitive children and teenagers experience.
Many of our young are driven to suicide, alcohol, street drugs and into the worlds of fear, inner withdrawal, terrible mental anguish, panic attacks, depression and psychosis.
As soon as mental distress is diagnosed as a disease, and medication prescribed as a cure, one view predominates - the disease-biological model - and the other, which sees mental distress as a response to life events and experiences, is elbowed out, along with its non-pharmaceutical solutions.
Doctors are primarily healers, passionate about their work. We have been given the responsibility to treat and save lives. We are also in part the creators of medical terminology, and the gatekeepers to medication.
I believe the time has come for the medical profession to embrace change, and reframe psychological distress as psychosocial in origin. There is a world of difference between these two stances. One leads to the continuation of the existing psychiatric service, which is evidently failing, at huge human and financial cost. The other ushers in the era of prevention of mental distress, from which follows a multitude of innovative changes such as the creation of learning environments for our children which equip them with personal, emotional and interpersonal skills, knowing how to take personal responsibility for their minds and bodies, and enabling them to live creatively.
It also paves the way for crisis intervention centres, therapeutic communities, and various forms of psychological rehabilitation. - Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL CORRY, Consultant Psychiatrist, Institute of Psychosocial Medicine, 2 Eden Park, Dún Laoghaire.