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The Daily PollMORE THAN TWO-THIRDS of students in Irish colleges would keep it a secret if they were experiencing mental health issues, according to a new survey released today.
The research from the See Change group aims to highlight attitudes towards psychological problems – with the group stating that prejudice around mental health can sometimes cause more damage than the health issues themselves.
However, researchers said most people who responded to the survey were open to and understanding of mental health problems – and initiatives such as tomorrow’s World Mental Health Day are raising awareness and discussion around the issues.
So what do you think? Should Irish people be more open about mental health problems?
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What a poll! It’s like asking should people be more open about having to cook a meal and eat each day!
At a Bray Area Partnership suicide seminar last year, there were a good number of Transition Year students and this is what they had to say in the small group sessions and in their final feedback: they want to learn in school how to deal with their own emotions, how to stay mentally well themselves, how to recognise if they were not doing well themselves, and how to recognise and support their friends who may be down or suicidal. They said they would not go to a school counsellor, and would prefer to get help from a friend. Currently the SafeTALK short training programme in how to recognise when a person is down or suicidal, talk to them and help them to get help is for over 18s only – we badly need to let younger people do this programme, or a modified version of it. Quote from that seminar: “We cover suicide in school, but they don’t go into the emotions.” Young people are crying out for this – why can’t we give it to them?
#Michelle Rogers: You are so right. Such steps would do more to prevent and alleviate emotional and psychosocial distress than all the psychiatrists in the land. In fact, kids would be safer, as falling into the hands of shrinks is almost a guarantee of falling into a revolving door of dependence on their drugs and highly dangerous side effects.
People are right to fear psychiatry. Its methods can damage you and prolong your problem. My advice to anyone with a ‘mental health’ difficulty â
In my experience Irish people especially in the Country are indifferent of people with Mental Health problems/needs
Most Irish universities now have disability and student counselling services. So yes, I don’t see why students would hide their difficulties. Even while universities maintain their right to demand proper academic standards, they still at least try to support students who are genuinely going through a rough patch – extended essay deadlines, extra exam time, counselling etc etc.
A little bit more honesty and openness from both universities and their students regarding mental health can only help matters.
@AnneMarie: is it now? I have spoken to people in this country who are taking medication for depression and are deadly afraid to tell anybody, cos all they expect is to be razzed about it. And that is intolerable.
@Lisa: why not make a big deal of it? I think we need too make a big deal of it ..
Surely the pole is to demonstrate to people with mental health problems that its ok to be open about it?
What a pointless poll. Irritating and patronising
Should we be more open about mental health? Ideally yes, but when you or someone close to you actually has a mental health issue who do you turn to? In an ideal world we’d expect that our health services would look after us to some degree, the HSE, ok so lets see where their Yourmentalhealth website suggests you go, should you have a problem? You could start with Age Opportunity, if you’re an older person, or maybe Aware to combat depression, Bodywhys if its an eating disorder, maybe the Samaritans. Charities?
All the links on the HSE Yourmentalhealth website point to charities, who are all or mostly funded by public donations, there isn’t one HSE department, not one hospital in the country listed where you can travel to and knock on the door and say I don’t feel mentally well, can you help me? Instead they rely on charities to do their work. We all hope IF we, or someone close to us were to have some kind of a mental breakdown then we’d be treated with kindness and compassion, a nice doctor would listen, a nice nurse would hold our hand – not so. What about GP’s? They are not qualified in this area and most have just done a 6 month rotation in psychiatry yet this is the first port of call for most people with a mental health issue. The next hope is one of the country’s mental health facilities. Granted most of the country’s mental health facilities were from another era and are closing but where are people who need inpatient treatment to go, not everyone can be treated in “the community”? Are we supposed to rely on publicly funded charities like SOSAD in the North East or Pieta House who do trojan work trying to stem the avalanche of suicides? The fact is if you’re mentally ill in Ireland today as far as the HSE are concerned don’t come near them, go to a charity for help, and if you’re outside Dublin, whistle for it.
Very good post , couldn’t agree more . Unfortunately this country is million light years away from even reaching that point. If you are seen to have a mental illness in this country, you are branded for life.
Well said Brian. That’s why I voted Don’t Know. Because I’ve known people whose efforts to get help have left them more vulnerable that before they asked for help. Do you know there are only four beds in the Mater Hospital for men with psychiatric issues who present for help. I went there with a friend who was suicidal, and in a right state. I waited around for six hours before they gave ME a few Librium to dispense to him, and sent him home with ME. I was only a friend, and have no medical training, and no intention of my helping turning into a 24 hour job. I’d been told before we arrived at the Mater that he would definitely be given a bed. I ended up caring for this friend – including hiding the Librium in case he took too much of it which he wanted to do – for three days and two nights, as they never found a bed for him in the end. Eventually, they sent him to a day drop in place attached to Vincent’s Psychiatric. To be fair to them, they helped him a lot. But it was at the most dangerous time, when he was crazed, quite psychotic and suicidal for two days, that he needed help the most and didn’t get it.
Brian while I echo the sentiment of what you have posted, particularly regarding the information on the websites I think you are overstating the case regarding the negative outcome of help seeking. Yes, the G.P is the first point of community contact. The GP has a direct referral relationship with the local consultant psychiatrist and multi disciplinary mental health team. Last check showed that the longest wait for a consultant assessment nationwide was 4 weeks with all local community mental health teams giving a commitment to prioritise crisis cases. You can get help when you need it and its wrong to suggest you cant.
We could debate all day on whether this system of help giving is fit for purpose, whether it is sufficiently resourced or whether its focus leans to heavily to the medical model and neglects the psychological and social aspects and that would be all very worthwhile. But I think you miss the point of the Poll, 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem throughout their lifetime yet 2 out of 3 of our young and most educated would keep this a secret. That speaks much more to a problem in our societal attitudes than a specific political or system failure. We are all in this together as a community and the more open we are about that the less likely it becomes that politicians ignore the nations mental health needs in terms of resources. Be the change you want to see.
Bit of a pole for the sake of a pole, no?
Of course. But I think the question but how you do that without making it a massive big deal.
Well obviously…
should we be more open about mental health problems. yes, of course but isn’t the REAL issue about the Irish prejudice that is rife. hospitals treat you badly if they know, every ill becomes ‘psychological’, employers don’t want to know and won’t offer you a job…or recind the offer of a job when the medical comes through. equal ops goes right out the window. if you’ve been in a psychiatric hospital forget it.
i am just touching 60 but in my 20′s i had a rough time. i was a ‘time-waster’ in casualties, a no-brainer for jobs and if i didn’t have a good guy in a government training scheme i’d have been sunk. at age 56 i completed my doctorate after 30 years top of my field.
but fighting the injustice and prejudice did nothing for me and i had to fight every inch of the way. PREJUDICE is the real issue not whether WE, the alleged ‘sick’ ones should be ‘more open’… yuck!
unfortunately i now have parkinson’s…life sucks! but life is or can be great.
No of course not, talking about stuff only makes it worse doesn’t it? That sort of thing is for wusses and sissies anyway ain’t it? Always best to repress thats my policy anyway, then you take it out on your friends and family or else your kids if ya have any, that way the cycle is continued and everyone shares in the pain.
Yes is the obvious answer. We as a society in Ireland need to open up to these kind of issues. Over the past decade I have noticed peoples attitudes to mental health ‘if I cant see it then it doen’t exists.’ It should not be up to the Government to find the solutions to this problem but up to each and every individual. We have the responsibility to force this change and create a forum where people can open up and share. With out the fear of being treated as an outsider or worse getting no response at all.
agree, i too received the prejudice in the hospital context, with self injury scars on both arms i am deemed a ‘faker looking for attention’ , the ills i have now, multiple disabiities and illnesses are seen as unreal due to scars of a past decade or two, there is nothing i can do about them, they are history to me when i was suffering.
but now i am suffering in a completely different health area and i am not let forget the past, i can and wish to move on but the medics have a preconceived idea of the person on the slab or bed there. we have a very sick concept of what it is to be wholly human in this country.
many people have trauma, mental health issues but many more get over these and live better lives for themselves. if people will let them
“with self injury scars on both arms i am deemed a ‘faker looking for attention’ ”
Ann, I am sorry you were treated that way. That is a truly disgusting thing to say to someone in a fragile and vulnerable state. Mo náire orthu.
A basic problem is that there is not enough focus on personal development in schools, work etc. Very few have the skills to try and help themselves by seeking out others. There is an over focus on excelling and getting things right instead a bit more on how to deal with things going wrong. this affects everything
There is too much emphasis on the medical model in treating mental disorders & not enough emphasis on the Psychosocial model. While some medication may help, sometimes all I see is overmedication which doesn’t solve anything. There should be more emphasis on therapy & getting the personal back to feeling they have a purpose, especially in light of our current recession. I feel courses like safeTALK and ASIST are very good for tackling suicide. Meditation & Yoga are good. Too much alcohol consumption affects mental health. With some exceptions, people are not very understanding of mental health issues and are not very supportive.
If you don’t take the medication you are given, you are labelled non-compliant by some doctors. Then when you do your research on these drugs you find out some of them are dangerous, especially if they are used long term. Most people are programmed to say ‘Take your medication’. At the end of the day, how much is understood about the brain?
Evidence suggests that support and councelling, either group therapy which works best for some people, or one to one which works better for others CAN be more effictive than drugs alone but there are times when they should compliment each other and the patient may not need as many or be on the drug for as long. Again though, who provides the councelling? I know of a number of people who had great difficulty finding councelling, they even paid a small fortune to find a private councellor who turned out to be useless and in the end, after many years, relied on charities. The HSE were no help.
How about getting the charities to get involved? What about aware? Haven’t they got therapy groups dotted around the country. Maybe ask them to give their opinion on what should be the next step?
There’s still a stigma of weakness surrounding mental health. The ‘pull youself together’ mindset still exists despite our high rate of suicide. People also don’t want to intrude if they know someone is mentally ill. They need your support. Be kind, very understanding and patient. The trouble is we are such masters at hiding our feelings, loved ones don’t often realise there’s anything wrong. Which, I think, explains this poll in a nutshell…
Worse mistake I ever made was go to my college , as college is so competitive, it is used against you by others to gain an advantage hence the branding and prejudice.
I’m sorry to hear that. I have a friend who was in Australia a few years ago and had a breakdown, coming from Ireland he said he just assumed things would be like here but was amazed. He described how the Health Services asked when he got off work so that they could arrange councelling around him, his words were that “someone gave a shit about me, and that made the difference”. It wasn’t a case of we’re open 9 to 5 or here’s where you should go, it was a case of you need help and we’re going to give it to you and they did all in their power to do just that. He still talks about them. It makes a huge difference to just give a damn, just to listen and care about someone. If such things were to be done in this country we might, just might save tens of millions in medication bills alone.
From my personal experience Irish attitudes to mental health are sorely behind the times. Were I live in Glanmire there has been an epidemic of young men committing suicide.
There seems to be a overwhelming attitude that needing meds or counseling is a sign of weakness. I myself had to hide my depression from my father after hearing him ridicule one of my aunts for needing “happy pills”.
I cannot tell you how fed up of that attitude I’ve become. I truly don’t understand that we can drink ourselves silly or harden our arteries with overeating to hide the pain but once antidepressants come into the mix…OH MY GOD YOU WIMP. It does not compute but then again Ireland in general doesn’t compute, I find.
the stigma and attitudes in Ireland need to change. As someone who grew up wit a mother who suffered wit bi-polar and depression, i have witnessed first hand what mental illness can do to a family. Our attitude to mental health in this country have never changed. Experts just threw cocktails of medicines at them. They still do. Our whole system of mental health care needs to change. There were just as many people who died by suicide last year as road accidents, but we don’t have any celebrity responsible highlighting the level suicide
I wouldn’t hold my breadth. When a suicide training day was organised for the juggernauts of Leinster House recently, only two people turned up. If that’s a measure of political commitment, the situation is hopeless. Vincent Browne had a piece in the IT recently about the Minister for Health’s performance at a mental health suicide awareness conference. Pitiful. The government aren’t serious about mental health. Look at the lack of accommodation for adolescents with mental health problems? I have friends, parents, in that Boston and the facilities are simply not there in any sufficiency.
I voted ‘Don’t Know’ for the following reason: (a) There is very little access to help if needed, unless you have a healthy disposable income. (b) There is ZERO regulation on standards and qualifications of counsellors and therapists in Ireland. (c) The HSE don’t cover mental health in a way that has patient’s best interests at it’s core. Thus, I don’t know which is worse: to keep it to yourself, to ask for help and not get it, or to ask and get unsuitable Help. I reference as an example the woman who took herself and her children to a hospital, asked for help as she couldn’t cope, was told none was available (if memory serves, it was ‘out of hours’), then left and drove herself and her children into the river. I don’t see how openness about her mental health helped that woman.
I couldn’t have said it better Paula, I think we’re on the same page. If you have a broken leg, a dodgy appendix or need stitches for a wound, a physical complaint, then the HSE will put you on a trolley for a few days but maybe get to you eventually. A mental issue on the other hand and they don’t want to know you, it’s up to you to fix yourself, after all its your mental health, isn’t that what they say? If you’re lucky you’ll find someone good who cares, but they’ll likely be from one of the charities, or as you said you have deep pockets.
Good to see more discussion on these issues. http://www.SpunOut.ie is working to promote student awareness and solutions. Also hoping to hear the issues discussed at the Presidential Youth Forum next Saturday.
POLL people, not pole.
And yes definitely. It’s difficult though but we have very high suicide rates in this country and need to start tackling it.
How about a poll like ‘Should we fuel the Money Junkies at the banks Addiction?’
I fear if I had stayed in Ireland I would most likely not be as well as I am today or even alive. Dramatic? I don’t think so. I am now in therapy and it is for 2 years and even though it scares me, I know I am fortunate to be sitting in that chair every week. I am stronger and more determined to heal than ever. I think I will always love Ireland as I was born and reared there but was and am scared to go back incase I get ill and there is no support to help me in a crisis.
The more we talk about it, the more those of us affected will hopefully feel braver in facing the bullies and ignorant ones who we fear may taunt us for daring to discuss what can be a crippling illness.
For me the answer cannot be a straight YES or NO.
YES in theory…but on the condition that we should be ABLE to be more open about mental health problems.
Although many may want to be, it’s not always possible, because we will be unfairly judged and discriminated against. This means that the problem remains hidden, which means it is never properly addressed.
I think as long as we have the mentality that alcohol and nicotine overuse, which permanently damage our bodies, are part of society while taking antidepressants is mortally embarrassing then, yes, we need to be far far more open about mental health.
have your say