The campaign to retain acute inpatient psychiatry beds in Clonmel is continuing despite the assertion by Junior Minister Lynch that she intends to shut St Michaels Admission Unit in March of next year. A public meeting has been announced by the Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee in the Park Hotel in Clonmel for 8pm on next Tuesday 6th December when service users and carers/relatives are urged to come to show their support for this vital service which like so many others in Clonmel is under very serious threat at present.
The Nationalist spoke to Dr Alan Moore, consultant psychiatrist who took a decision to leave the HSE following his effective gagging by management this summer. (He received a letter threatening him with disciplinary action if he continued to talk to the media). Dr Moore remains an active member of the Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee which is campaigning for the retention of a reduced number of acute psychiatry beds in South Tipperary instead of the HSE plan to send patients for admission to Kilkenny.
He told the Nationalist this week that the arguments in favour of keeping a small admission unit in Clonmel are as strong as ever despite HSE claims that the development of Day Hospitals and a Home Treatment team will replace the unit next year.
“No amount of HSE spin will alter the internationally accepted research which shows that even when you put in a Rolls Royce community service with home visits etc etc, you can only reduce the number of hospital admissions by a maximum of 40%. This leaves 60% of the most acutely ill patients from South Tipperary who will be treated like second class citizens and packed off to Kilkenny where they will have few if any visits from relatives and where they will be looked after by unfamiliar staff . Unfortunately the community service that is being planned falls far short of the ideal one in terms of staff resourcing and infrastructure and is but a pale shadow of that recommended by Vision for Change, the governments own policy document for mental health. Yet this is the context in which they intend to shut our beds, which once gone will be gone forever”.
“From the outset the HSE have been determined to shut down St Michaels and have refused to consider a range of alternatives which were put forward by clinical staff, and supported by local elected representatives. These include the downsizing of St Michaels from 49 beds to 20 to 25 beds and the careful and scientific analysis of the use of these remaining beds while the community service is properly resourced. Repeated requests for an option appraisal have been refused by HSE senior management without explanation and it has been crystal clear that closure of the Unit was the only show in town from that black day in January in 2010 when Seamus Moore made his shock announcement on local radio,” Dr Moore said. All the subsequent meetings and committees have been window-dressing unfortunately” he claimed.
“The HSE’s behaviour throughout our campaign has been extremely disappointing,” he said. “For me, the last straw was the gagging letter which was to me a clear indication that the HSE is not interested in the truth, and are prepared to get their own way at any cost. There is a climate of fear amongst staff: people are afraid to speak out for fear of the consequences” he went on.
However Dr Moore remains optimistic of a happy outcome in the campaign “The people who really matter have not yet spoken—the users and carers. They know of the absolute need for a local service and they have not been asked for their views—deliberately, I believe”.
“The Save our Acute Services have been asking Minister Lynch for many weeks for a meeting with service users and families to forward their views but no date has been granted unfortunately. The pressure for this meeting will intensify in the weeks ahead, I believe”
“In the meantime the Committee is hopeful that the meeting in the Park Hotel will see a huge turnout and that this in turn will send a message to the decision makers before it is too late.”
Irish Municipal Art Collections – Talk on 1st Dec at 7.30pm
South Tipperary County Council Arts Service and the County Museum are delighted to present Irish Municipal Art Collections, a talk by Dr Peter Jordan at the County Museum on Thursday 1st December at 7.30pm. Until his retirement in 2009, Dr. Peter Jordan was a Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Art at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). His main research interest is in the origins and development of the public art collection, and he has a number of publications on this subject, including, the ‘Origins of the Clonmel Municipal Art Collection’, Journal of the South Tipperary Historical Society, 2006, and most recently a history and catalogue of the Waterford Municipal Art Collection. Dr Jordan will be giving a talk on the origins and development of Irish Municipal Art Collections during the 1930s and 40s with reference to the South Tipperary County Museum Collection and the current exhibition Irish Women Artists of the 20th Century an exhibition drawn from The Niland Collection, and The Collection of South Tipperary County Museum presented in collaboration with The Model, home of The Niland Collection, Sligo. Artists in the exhibition include; Sarah Purser, Estella Solomons, Eva Hamilton, Mary Swanzy, Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Nano Reid, Norah McGuinness, Frances Kelly, Bea Orpen, Dorothy Cross, Alice Maher, Marie Foley and Clare Langan.
For further information or to book contact Sally O’Leary Arts Officer,
Tel 052 6134565 or email sally.oleary@southtippcoco.ie
Marie Foley – Artist Talk
at South Tipperary County Museum on 7th Dec at 1.10pm
South Tipperary County Council Arts Service is delighted to present an artist talk by Marie Foley at the County Museum on Dec 7th at 1.10pm in conjunction with the exhibition Irish Women Artists of the 20th Century. The exhibition is drawn from The Niland Collection and The Collection of South Tipperary County Museum and is presented in collaboration with The Model, home of The Niland Collection, Sligo. It provides an opportunity to examine some of the changing themes and practices of women artist’s throughout the century to the present day. Artists in the exhibition include; Sarah Purser, Estella Solomons, Eva Hamilton, Mary Swanzy, Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Nano Reid, Norah McGuinness, Frances Kelly, Bea Orpen, Dorothy Cross, Alice Maher, Marie Foley and Clare Langan.
Marie Foley is a sculptor. She was born in Kanturk and studied Fine Art at the Crawford College of Art, Cork, Goldsmiths College, London and Cardiff College of Art and was awarded an MA in 1987. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, England, Wales, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Canada, USA and Japan. She was the first Irish Artist to have a solo Exhibition in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Public commissions include Kilkenny Castle, The Office of Public Works at 51-52, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, a sculpture for National Universities of Ireland Presentation to President Mary Robinson, Cothú Awards, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdrum County Council and Wilton Library, Cork. She has received various Arts Council awards. Other awards include an International Ceramic Award, a Canada Council award and The New Horizons Award from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She became a member of Aosdána in 1996. Marie Foley’s sculpture is composed of elements which are carved in yew, bog oak, ash, sycamore, elements which are modelled in porcelain, and sometimes additional hand-worked or salvaged elements in metal, stone etc. Her artistic practice is inspired by a profound interest in nature and the deeper universal significance of all. Her language is one of symbolic form.
For further information about the exhibition or to book for the talk please contact the Arts Service on 052 6134565 or email sally.oleary@southtippcoco.ie. Guided tours of the exhibition can be arranged for schools – groups wishing to visit the exhibition should contact the Arts Service.
Film Screening
County Museum Clonmel
Weds 7th Dec – 7.30pm
To book contact 052 6134565
South Tipperary County Council Arts Service working in conjunction with Tipperary Libraries have been hosting a series of youth animation workshops at Clonmel library, participants will have the opportunity to show their work in a public screening taking place at South Tipperary County Museum. This is a chance for family and friends to celebrate the creativity of the young film-makers.
Sally O’Leary
Arts Officer
South Tipperary County Council
052 6134565
Workers & Unemployed Action 