News from: media

November 28, 2008

Headline News Highlights (28th November- 5th December 2008)

Mental Health

 Figures from sports and arts to help end stigma of suicide
Irish Times (Fri, 5 Dec 2008)
Well-known figures from sports, arts, media, and politics who have suffered from a mental illness will be asked to promote the Government’s mental health strategy and to end the stigma of such illness.  Minister of State for mental health John Moloney said it was critical for the stigma of mental illness to be addressed if the number of suicides were to fall.

Some 50% of carers of the elderly are over 60
Irish Times (Tue, 2 Dec 2008)
More than half of the carers of elderly people with dementia or other mental health illnesses are aged 60 or over, new research shows.
The study found that more than 17 per cent of those who are looking after elderly relatives who are mentally ill suffer from undiagnosed depression.

Call for mental health support after abortion
Irish Times (Tue, 2 Dec 2008)
A prominent Irish psychiatrist has called for specific treatments to be offered to women who have had an abortion, following the publication of new research linking termination of pregnancy with the subsequent development of mental health problems.

Study finds teens feel deep sense of unease about future
Irish Times (Mon, 1 Dec 2008)
Irish teenagers feel a deep sense of unease about how their lives will pan out in the future, according to a new study based on how thousands of young people see themselves.

 Mental Health Services

Minister plans to sell 12 psychiatric hospitals
Irish Times (Thu, 4 Dec 2008)
Minister of State for Mental Health John Moloney has said he will announce details of a programme in January to sell off 12 psychiatric hospitals.
At the launch yesterday of An Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing , at Trinity College School of Nursing and Midwifery, the Minister said he would name the first of the hospitals he intended to sell in the new year. The money raised would help fund the 2006 Government mental health plan, he said.

Judge condemns lack of high-security hospital facilities
Sunday Business Post (Wed, 3 Dec 2008)
A judge in the North hit out at the authorities today over the lack of high-security hospital facilities for mentally ill prisoners facing trial in the province.

Mental hospital chief 'did not back prison site move'
Sunday Times (Sun, 30 Nov 2008)
The clinical director of the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) has complained that the government misrepresented him by suggesting he supported its transfer to the site of the new prison in Thornton Hall, north Dublin. Harry Kennedy, director of the CMH, wrote to John Moloney, the minister with responsibility for mental health, last month to "put the record straight", saying that the plan for Thornton Hall was present- ed to him as a fait accompli.

 Suicide Prevention

Media criticised over suicide coverage
Irish Times (Thu, 4 Dec 2008)
Some of the media coverage of murder-suicides in recent years has been a "disgrace", an expert on suicide has said. Dr John Connolly, a founder member of the Irish Association of Suicidology and a psychiatrist by profession, said that some of the tabloid coverage of cases in Wexford had been gratuitous and lurid and made a tragedy even worse.

Press Council publish document on suicide
Irish Times (Mon, 1 Dec 2008)
Suicide IS a social phenomenon which should be treated sensitively but not ignored by newspapers, according to organisations which took part in a consultation process on the reporting of suicide organised by the Press Council.

Depression

Buddhist meditation can beat depression
Evening Herald (Mon, 1 Dec 2008)
Group psychology involving Buddhist meditation techniques can be just as effective at combating depression as medication, a study has found. The treatment, known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), helps people focus on the present instead of dwelling on the past or planning the future.

Comments

Post a comment