Please help to Free John

[spiritual_emergency]

Background (Preamble):
John Hunt is a trauma survivor with a diagnosis of 'paranoid schizophrenia'. He has spent over four years locked up in Carraig Mor psychiatric treatment centre in Cork city, Ireland.
 
He has been over-medicated on an array of psychotropic medications with dangerous adverse effects. He has had tardive dyskinesia, akathasia and has developed incontinence. His physical/ mental/ emotional/ spiritual health has been severely neglected and has deteriorated since being in Carraig Mor.
 
He has had no access to a rehabilitation team or psychotherapist and no day release in two years. There are no plans to rehabilitate John and return him to the community where he belongs. He is merely maintained and contained. John and his family have no voice in relation to his future. We are afraid that John's physical health is being damaged considerably. We cannot stand by and watch this happen any longer.
 

John is 28. He has spent the last 4 years in Carraig Mor high-security psychiatric unit under section in Cork city. He has a diagnosis of so-called drug-induced paranoid schizophrenia and has experienced terrifying psychotic episodes. He is on major neuroleptics/ psychotropic/ anti-psychotic medication with adverse effects (involuntary movements, extreme restlessness, lethargy, dizziness, vomiting, hallucinations, jaundice, diabetes, Parkinsonism, tooth decay, grey pallor, to name a few). ... Life in Carraig Mor is soul-destroying and the long-term use of toxic heavy medication is taking it's toll on John. He is 'maintained and contained' with barely any fresh air. He paces up and down the corridors, smoking.
 
~ Grainne Humphreys
 
John has committed no crime, those closest to him state that he is not dangerous and yet he has been incarcerated for more than 4 years against the wishes of himself and his family. There are no current plans to return him to his loved ones despite his immediate family offering total support and a planned package of care through EleMental with a psychiatric nurse and experts by experience willing to voluntarily be with and care for John.
 
~ Marion Aslan
 
The Mental Health Act of Ireland 2001 has given complete power to a treating consultant psychiatrist over John's life, he has the right to lock John up for the rest of his life. ... This law also gives the right to a treating psychiatrist to administer by force any or all medication they see fit, up to and including forced ECT and it is all legal under the Mental Health Act of Ireland. ...

His only semblance of a quasi court he has under this act is The Tribunals set up by the Mental Health Commission. These tribunals are held in secret, behind closed doors, they have the right to exclude all witnesses moral support up to and including the patients family. ... The patient/victim is brought before this tribunal in a highly drugged state, and expected to mount a defence.
 
~ John McCarthy
 
He has not seen the outside of the centre in over four years when he attended the christening of his now four-year-old son. The frustrated 29-year-old, who is a talented writer and artist, told the Cork Independent this week that he feels beaten: "The energy has been bullied out of me."
 
Christine Allen
 
Please help John by signing his petition for freedom. It will only take a moment: Free John
 
Thank you.
 
~ Namaste
 
Music of the Hour: The Youngbloods ~ Get Together:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fWN6VvgKQ[/youtube]
 

[spiritual_emergency]

Should any of you wish to know more about John, his partner (Grainne) has created a blogsite here: Free John: http://freejohn-loverevolutionary.blogspot.com/

There is also a facebook group here: The Incarceration of John: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/group.php?gid=45363924188

If you believe (as I do) that John's best odds for recovery are to be found in a loving environment and the opportunity to choose the treatment protocols and caregivers that he actually finds helpful, please sign his petition to be released from his captivity and share the link to his petition with others.

Thank you.

~ Namaste

[spiritual_emergency]

 An article, just published, in the Irish Times, that references John's case...

Call for review of psychiatric 'detention'
In this section »
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SEANAD REPORT: CALLING FOR a debate about the culture surrounding psychiatric care, deputy Seanad leader Dan Boyle (Green) said he had become aware that a woman in her 20s was being detained in a psychiatric facility partly because she was deemed to be in danger of being promiscuous in the outside world.

Mr Boyle said he had visited the facility last weekend, where he had seen a 29-year-old man and a woman aged 26. The man, who had been in the facility for four years, had a four-year-old child whom he seen only once during that period.

The woman had been there for five years and one of the reasons for her continued detention – “and I will define it as detention” – was that she was defined medically by some person as being in danger of being promiscuous if she was to get her liberty.

“When our cultural values inform our system of psychiatric health and care in such a way, I think we need to look at wider aspects than the type of bread and butter arguments that we tend to have in this House,” said Mr Boyle.

Geraldine Feeney (FF) said the story told by Mr Boyle beggared belief. “If I heard him right, a 26-year-old is in a mental institution for five years because someone belonging to her thinks she will be promiscuous if she is out in the world.”

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0623/1224273108334.html

Note, I believe one aspect of the article is incorrect.  John does see his son Josh but with the exception of him being released to attend his son's christening four years ago, the remainder of their relationship has had to develop within the confines of a locked visitor's lounge.  John has not been permitted passes to spend time with his partner, his son, his mother and siblings.   His family believes these relationships are critical to his recovery and his lack of them is contributing to the turmoil of his ordeal. 









 

[spiritual_emergency]

Another article about John, published in the Cork Independent News...

Psychiatric prisoner   
Written by Christine Allen     
Thursday, 17 June 2010 
ork woman has pleaded this week for the release of her partner who has been locked up in a Cork psychiatric unit against the wishes of his family for over four years,. John Hunt (29) will not spend Father's Day with his four-year-old son Josh this Sunday. Instead he faces another day of heavy medication and detention in Carraig Mor in Shanakiel, against his will and to the emotional torment of his partner, son, mother and friends.

Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, John was first detained in 2006 after he suffered a breakdown, according to his partner Grainne Humphrys from West Cork.
 
She has started an online campaign for his release from what she calls a "psychiatric prison" and a "chemical straitjacket".

"John suffered a breakdown when I was pregnant with our son Josh and his frightened mother Marion signed him in. But now, we can't get him out. We have no say," she told the Cork Independent.

He has not seen the outside of the centre in over four years when he attended the christening of his now four-year-old son. The frustrated 29-year-old, who is a talented writer and artist, told the Cork Independent this week that he feels beaten.

"The energy has been bullied out of me."

No outlet for emotions
When this newspaper visited John with Grainne this week, the cramped visiting room was lonesome and heavy with loss. John is currently taking a cocktail of drugs, including anti-psychotics Solian and Clopixol, sleeping tablets, anti-anxiety tablets and Largactil, which have caused his teeth to rot, resuling in the loss of four so far.

"Sometimes he is yellow in the face from all the meds and he is now incontinent. He's completely over-medicated," Grainne said. He is heartbroken that he cannot spend time with his son. "Josh is his everything."

However, she said that when John expresses any pain, it is seen as a relapse in his condition. "He has no outlet for his emotions. It's not encouraged." While John's eyes were dulled with medication they still reach out for release. If it were not for his lively son Josh and the warmth of Grainne's embrace to her partner of over six years, the room would turn the healthiest mind towards melancholy.

"We have been forced to have our family relationship in this small room for four years now. This room is watched by CCTV and shared with other families. This cannot go on any longer."

Mental Health Act
John is being kept in care under the Mental Health Act 2001 as his consultant believes him to be a risk to the safety of his family. The Act gives power to a treating consultant psychiatrist over the freedom of the patient. However, Grainne explained that the severity of the diagnosis was based on a violent reaction that John had to forced treatment.

"He needs a different approach and one that allows him to deal with the emotional pain of his past. He has unreleased trauma from his childhood but there is no psychologist available to him at Carraig Mor.

"John is a victim of violence and not a perpetrator." According to Grainne, who works as a mental health advocate, she has already set up a number of supports for John. "John is not a danger to anyone.

"Neither his mother or I have a legal voice for John and no means to appeal. He's trapped there and I'm more afraid of the mental health system than I am of his condition. We want him to come home now - it's time."

Source: http://www.corkindependent.com/local-news/local-news/psychiatric-prisoner/