Co-Locating Central Mental Hospital with Thornton Hall Prison Less Enlightened than the Victorians

News Release

6 April, 2008

There is no possible therapeutic reason to relocate the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum to a site adjoining the new Thornton Hall prison complex, says the Central Mental Hospital Carers Group, a voluntary group of relatives and carers of patients in the hospital.

Patients not Prisoners

Writing in the April 2008 issue of Working Notes, the journal of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, the Carers Group says it must not be forgotten that people detained in the Central Mental Hospital ‘are patients, not prisoners’: it is because of their mental illness they have come into the criminal justice system.

The Group notes that when the Central Mental Hospital was proposed 150 years ago, the authorities of the time rejected the idea of locating it beside a prison: “It is ironic that the Victorians could make such an enlightened decision yet modern Irish politicians can decide to co-locate the proposed new hospital with new prison facilities.” Pointing out that moving the hospital to the Thornton Hall site will “inevitably and irreversibly associate its patients with criminality”, the Carers Group says: “This surely is against the ethos of mental health care in any civilised society.”

Move to a Less Favourable Site

The Carers Group says that a further reason the proposed move has to be considered a regressive step is that it will mean losing the many advantages attaching to the present location of the Central Mental Hospital. In Dundrum, the hospital is readily accessible to family and friends who wish to visit patients. Moreover, it is now naturally embedded in the local community and low security patients can avail of training, college courses and social facilities either locally or in the city centre as part of their rehabilitation and re-engagement with community life.

By contrast, the Group says, the Thornton Hall site is at a far distance from such resources and facilities and at present it is not directly accessible by public transport. Furthermore, as a consequence of the relocation of their place of work, it was likely that upwards on 50 per cent of the medical and nursing staff of the hospital will leave. A loss of this scale would have significant consequences for the services provided by the hospital since such specialised staff will not be easily replaced, the Carers Group says.

Feasible Alternative

The Group argued that there is a feasible alternative to the proposed relocation, namely to sell off up to ten acres of the grounds in Dundrum for development and use the resources generated to build a new state-of-the-art facility on the site.  This option, as well as being financially viable, would allow the hospital to continue to benefit from the considerable advantages of its present location. Above all, the Group says, it would show “that the welfare of the users of the services of the Central Mental Hospital, and not administrative convenience or financial gain, was the priority in updating and expanding the facilities for this vulnerable and often overlooked group in our society.”

Call to Re-think Proposed Move say Jesuit Centre Director

Speaking on the occasion of the publication of Working Notes, Fr Tony O’Riordan SJ, Director of the Jesuit Centre, said that the article by the Carers Group had very clearly highlighted the need for the authorities to re-think the proposal to relocate the Central Mental Hospital. He said that it was particularly significant that the Group was putting forward an alternative proposal for the provision of a new forensic psychiatric hospital, and he urged that this be given serious consideration in the review of the proposed relocation which is now being conducted by the Health Service Executive.

Fr O’Riordan also noted that the need to rethink applies equally to other facilities planned at Thornton Hall. He said as more details of what is proposed for Thornton Hall emerge, the more apparent are the problems with what is being proposed.  He called for a thorough review of all aspects of the Thornton Hall project, in particular the relocation of Mountjoy Female prison and the Training Unit, the building of an interim facility for 16 and 17 years as well as a review of the design and size of the main facilities for male prisoners.

“This will be the largest single expenditure on penal resources in the history of the state, and at a time when public funds are being cut back on essential services, it is vital that the planning for Thornton Hall is thoroughly reconsidered. A smaller facility at Thronton Hall and the reassessment of the unnecessary move of other facilities to that site is now timely,” Fr O’Riordan concluded. 




For further information or for interviews, please contact:

Fr Tony O’Riordan SJ, Director, Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice,
Telephone:  087 928 6945.

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Director
Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice
26 Upper Sherrard Street
Dublin 1
tel: 01 855 6814
mobile: 087 928 6945
web: www.jcfj.ie
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