Paul Hopkins

The Fact OfThe Matter

PAUL HOPKINS PAUL HOPKINS Health saga: a dedicated mind shift is called for

Our story last week that up to 8,000 children and adolescents are awaiting psychological assessment paints a disturbing picture of our health care system.

Indeed, there would be none who would disagree with Taoiseach Micheál Martin describing a review of the care of more than 1,300 children at the HSE-run South Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service as “very, very serious” and “unacceptable”. at the report’s nding that 46 children su ered “signi cant harm” and “demands a fundamental review” across the country. Our Special Report this week on Page 15 only worsens matters. e Taoiseach told the Dáil the report was a “damning indictment of the service” provided under CAMHS. at was on the very same day Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and under- re Department of Health Secretary General Robert Watt jetted out to Dubai to attend a health expo as controversy continues over the latter’s €295,000 salary. Mind you, not as exorbitant as HSE boss Paul Reid’s €420,000.

A lack of resources does not necessarily seem to be the crux of the matter. When ‘A Vision for Change’ was published in 2006 on the future for psychiatric services, the number of CAMHS teams was 40 and there were six inpatient beds for child and adolescent patients.

Now there are 73 teams and some 70 beds, with more to come at the long-waited-for National Paediatric Hospital and very specialised beds in the mental health service in Portrane, Co. Dublin. at said, one could argue that our national mental health budget for last year was just 5.1% of the total health budget, with just 1% allocated to children’s mental health. e World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends 12%, while our long-awaited proposed Sláintecare recommends 10%. e UK spends 13% of their budget on mental health. e Government need to increase spending to 10% by 2024, according to lobbyists Mental Health Reform. ose working in mental health in Ireland are the lowest in numbers compared to other countries a liated to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Currently, that number is 30% short of what is needed to run mental health hospitals and clinics e ciently. And remember it is a junior practitioner at the centre of the South Kerry saga.

Sta shortages result in long waiting lists, lack of precise therapies, and negative e ects on treatment and continuity of care. Investment now in more psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and peer support is needed.

Investment, too, in primary care would improve access to psychology services, counselling, and social workers, with early intervention playing a critical role in reducing more serious mental health challenges. is time last year there were more than 2,700 children and teens on a waiting list for CAMHS.

As South Kerry has shown only horri cally too well, poor access to primary care psychological services can result in inappropriate referrals to CAMHS, where resources are stretched and totally inadequate.

Mental Health Reform, also, says there are signi cant gaps in advocacy supports for people with mental health di culties. National advocacy services need to be funded in hospitals, prisons, residences and in the community.

As the Kerry cases show, a stand-alone practitioner — and a junior one at that — with a huge waiting list and little or no support is not an attractive scenario for recruitment. ere is, too, the fear of being a lone soldier in a culture of litigation. e clinical aspect is the easy bit; navigating the system, the ‘mess’ with no proper service in place, is hugely unattractive. ere was a time once in Ireland when one’s mental health was not talked about. He or she was a bit ‘di erent’, ‘odd’ even. Now, we thankfully do talk about it. But talk is not enough. Action is needed.

Before the two-year pandemic lockdown, one in three of ird level students in Ireland was su ering “extreme levels of anxiety” and had had a formal diagnosis of a “mental health di culty” at some point in their life, says a survey by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). e survey found that 38.4% of students su er extreme levels of anxiety, 29.9% depression and 17.3% from stress. Almost a third, 32.2%, have had a formal diagnosis. ose young people and others have had a hard time of it with two years of pandemic anxiety and uncertainty. eir mental health could well be the ‘silent pandemic’. We must reach out and show our children and our young people that their problems, however daunting they might seem, are not insurmountable. We seem to have lost our way somehow. A dedicated mind shift is called for, else we risk repeating the sins of the past.

See also Page 15

Sports ace Carey ‘a fraudster’

KILKENNY businesswoman and former Irish sports star Catriona Carey has been convicted of theft and fraud after forging a cheque from a hairdresser who had hired her as his accountant.

Ms Carey, who played hockey for Ireland and camogie for her home county, was found guilty of altering the details of a cheque for €6,948 and cashing it.

An RTÉ Investigates documentary has revealed details of her conviction and has focused on her business dealings, accusing her of scamming people struggling to make mortgage payments out of thousands of euros through a scheme that offered to buy debt from lenders at a discount.

Between February 7 and 9, 2018, she had changed a cheque which had been made out to the Collector General by instead making it payable to herself.

The cheque was then cashed at a Bank of Ireland branch in Parliament Street, Kilkenny.

She was later charged under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act and received an eight-month suspended sentence.

Ms Carey trained as an accountant and is director and owner of a company called Careysfort Asset Estates Ltd, which is registered in England.

The RTÉ report revealed she came up with a scheme which she claimed would help those in financial distress by clearing their debt and enabling them to stay in their homes.

Ms Carey wanted a deposit up front, asking clients for between 10% and 30% of the proposed new loan.

They borrowed the money from family and credit unions, thinking this would bring an end to their financial woes.

Ms Carey told prospective clients that Careysfort Asset Estates would buy their debt from their lender at a discount and then the outstanding balance would be written off as a bad debt. Careysfort would then provide a new loan with lower monthly repayments to the clients and make its profit from the interest rate.

However, many of the deals have yet to materialise.

Killer of fiance is deported from Oz

A WEXFORD woman who killed her fiancé during a row at a house in Sydney is to be released from prison and deported from Australia.

Cathrina ‘Tina’ Cahill, from Co Wexford, was sentenced to eight years in jail for stabbing David Walsh in the neck in February 2017.

She pleaded guilty to manslaughter based on substantial impairment due to an abnormality of the mind.

The judge who sentenced her described her relationship with Walsh as “volatile” and involving aggression on both sides.

In an interview from jail in 2017, Cahill said she was upset about being in prison, but added: “I have to serve some penalty for what I did.

“I can’t really remember what happened. Of course I regret it, I’m still shocked, I loved him.”

She was sentenced to eight years in prison but she was eligible for parole after serving five years.

A spokesperson for the State Parole Authority in New South Wales told the Irish Independent her parole has been granted and she “will be removed from Australia immediately upon her release from custody on February 17 and deported”.

A pre-release report assessed her as having a “lowrisk of reoffending”.

On the night of February 17, 2017, the couple had been socialising with a number of friends before a row broke out, with neighbours reporting loud noises coming from their property.

The fatal incident occurred when Mr Walsh launched an unprovoked attack on a man who had been invited back to their house in Padstow, Sydney, by Cahill and two other female housemates after they met him at a pub.

Cahir Castle Europe’s top movie site

HISTORIC Cahir Castle, which has stood proudly for more than 700 years on its rocky island over the River Suir and is managed by the Office of Public Works (OPW), has won the European Film Commissions Network (EUFCN) Location Award 2021.

Nominated by Screen Ireland as the location for The Green Knight, Cahir Castle won by public vote against four other shortlisted European film locations in Norway (Dune), Spain (The Crown), Croatia (Murina) and Germany (The Queen’s Gambit).

The award was announced at the Berlinale’s European Film Market on Tuesday night (15.02.2022).

One of Ireland’s largest and best-preserved historic castles, Cahir Castle has captured the imagination of multiple filmmakers over the past decades. In David Lowery’s 2021 film – a fantasy retelling of the famous medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – the 13thcentury fortress features as the Camelot of Arthurian legend, a role it has starred in before in the 1981 film Excalibur.

€10,000 apprentice prize from Screwfix

LEADING omnichannel retailer, Screw x, has opened its annual ‘Screw x Trade Apprentice’ competition to the Irish market for the second year running on with entries being accepted online until the February 20 at www.Screw x.ie/sfta.

Screw x, which trades online at Screw x.ie, has more than 17 stores in Ireland. e winner will receive a career-boosting accolade and a €10,000 prize bundle from Screw x.

Safe Ireland welcomes violence victim agency

THE Government’s decision to establish a new statutory agency with responsibility for ‘Domestic Sexual and GenderBased Violence’ (DSGBV) has been welcomed by Safe Ireland. Safe Ireland said it was hopeful this new body was indicative of a new paradigm for responding to violence against women. CEO Mary McDermott said: “A dedicated agency with responsibility for DSGBV is a major step towards achieving the structural reform necessary to address the continued and growing problem of violence against women. Our hope is that it will have su cient reach and power to truly e ect an integrated crossdepartmental response in the short-term, and ultimately eliminate violence against women into the future.

“To achieve this, it must be adequately resourced to do this work e ectively. It will be crucial therefore that the governing legislation which will empower the new agency is su ciently comprehensive to ensure that a long-term whole-of-government response can be deployed which will address the socio-political drivers of DSGBV and remove all structural impediments to change,” she said.

Responding to reservations expressed as to the suitability of the Department of Justice as lead ministry, with oversight from the Department of An Taoiseach, Ms McDermott said: “Safe Ireland in cohort with many other women’s organisations has long advocated for a dedicated ministry for women’s a airs and we continue to support that mission. In the meantime, however, we consider the decision to assign DSGBV to the portfolio of one minister as opposed to two (which has been the position until now) as a progressive move in the that direction.”

She said traditional frameworks of responding to violence against women have been weighted in favour of measures which hold perpetrators to account.

AT A GLANCE

Tulsa review is ‘a milestone’

e publication of Tusla’s Review of Accommodation for victims of domestic violence marks a signi cant milestone in the integrated planning for supports and services for victims across the country. e review maps existing accommodation provision in Ireland, in the context of current capacity, international standards and the lived experiences of victims and the frontline services that support them.

It concludes that there needs to be state planned funding of additional family units, safe homes and support services across the country to meet the needs of women, men and children that are victims of abuse.

Exports good despite Brexit

Neither the pandemic nor Brexit dented Irish goods exports last year, with rms relying more on the EU and Northern Ireland and less on Britain.

Goods exports topped €165bn last year, the highest value ever recorded, up more than €3bn, or 2%, on 2020 levels, the Central Statistics O ce said.

Medical and pharmaceutical products made up almost 40% (€62bn) of total exports.

€16.98m. for roads upgrade

A total of €16.98m. has been announced for the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads throughout Kilkenny for 2022. is is in addition to the earlier allocation of €3m from the National Transport Authority. e increase of 8% in Restoration Grant to €9,032,500, additional €355,000 for climate adaptation works and maintaining the restoration maintenance grant at €2,488,500 are particularly welcomed.

Festival of Marital Arts in Kilkenny

THIS coming Sunday the 20th of February a festival of Martial Arts is taking place at O’Loughlin Gaels organized by Song Moo Kwan Ireland members led by Kilkenny Taekwondo Club. is festival is based on the aura of the strongest knight that ever lived who built the Castle in Kilkenny and many towns in the South East of Ireland. He lived in Ireland about 10 years of his eventful life. is festival is dedicated to honour the life of chivalry and loyalty he lived and to promote Martial arts as one aspect of Kilkenny’s activities . It will be held at the winter Midterm of every year. is year there will be demonstrations of Kick boxing, Taekwondo, Aikido and the art of swordsmanship.

While it went online in 2021 this year it is running as a hybrid. e organisers hope that by 2023 this event will become a major attraction to the city and attract participations from all over the world. It is family oriented and would be suitable for children to watch. Hope to see you all on Sunday. e event starts at 9:30 am. Guy Jones Grand Master of Taekwondo will be reached at 087-8090088 for more details or via Facebook and Instagram.

Language-learning the fun way

ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST

BELIEVE it or not, there are easier ways to learn a language than the rotelike repetition of stock phrases in your chosen lingua. An activity all too reminiscent of the classroom for many. Learning a new tongue can, should, be fun, enjoyable and, if not easy, much less di cult than rst imagined.

Maybe the biggest tip anyone embarking on the journey of picking up a new lingua can be given is to know your reasoning. If you are at liberty to choose whatever tongue you like, opt for the one which you feel most passionate about. In other words, the language which ts in with whatever culture you have a love for or the place you like visiting most.

Perhaps you have great interest in French cinema, German opera, Russian literature, Italian football, Chinese history, anything. Sorry if some of those seem a little stereotypical but the point is, nd whatever gets your pulse racing and go with it. at way, not only do you have a clear motivation to keep going, but, once you get to grips a little with the tongue, you have a way to learn through doing something you enjoy. For example, listening to music, watching a lm or reading sports news.

Duolingo is a handy little app. OK, it’s unlikely to get you uent enough to hold full, stimulating conversations but it’s great for practising words and phrases and, given it’s phone-based, you pretty much always have it with you. It has short lessons, tests and even more advanced features such as stories and language-learning podcasts. ere are some excellent sets of books accompanied with audio available. One of the best has to be the Hugo In 3 Months series. Typically consisting of twelve to thirteen indepth self-study lessons, it has enough to take you from the very rst steps to having the con dence to start using your chosen lingua in a variety of settings. ere are other options out there if Hugo doesn’t oat your boat. As an example, people who prefer to learn using aural-only material can do worse than seeking out the Michel omas edition for their target tongue. Ask in a bookstore or your local library for the language-learning resources and see what works for you.

At the end of the day, nothing beats practice with native speakers. If it’s French you want to learn, there’s a good chance Alliance Française has something going on in your area as it has a network of centres around the country. Equivalents like the Goethe-Institut (German), Instituto Cervantes (Spanish) and others have bases in Dublin which may be able to help you. You may even nd a local group which meets on a more informal basis.

As explored last week, language learning brings more bene ts than simply picking up new phrases. It has the ability to change your life for the better in so many di erent ways. Make it your objective for 2022!