Madam, - Earlier this year I raised, on national radio, the plight of the patients in the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum and the conditions in this, the State's only forensic mental institution.
With the full approval and consent of the clinical director and staff there, it is my aspiration, together with Senator Mary Henry,to form an Association of Friends of the Central Mental Hospital Dublin. Senator Henry has been an advocate for many years of the plight of the mentally ill.
The purpose of the association will be to address the stigma associated with mental illness and also to bring about an improvement in the Dickensian conditions in the hospital including the abolition of the outrageous, degrading practice of "slopping out".
We appeal to trade unionists, local councillors, heads of education and the arts, church leaders but, more importantly your readers to express their opinion, to show their concern and to raise their voices in protest at the past and present injustices perpetrated on patients in the Central Mental Hospital and help us and the staff in improving the therapeutic environment for these vulnerable patients. - Yours, etc.,
KAYE MARSHALL, D.Phil.,
Friends of the
Central Mental Hospital,
Dundrum,
Dublin 14.