To Headshop or Not to Headshop

Breaking News > Jim McDaid TD for Sport, Tourism and Recreation has come out on Newstalk's 106-108 FM Eamonn Keane Lunchtime show, Ireland’s Premier National radio station and stated controversially

[Have your say every day email info@irelandpsychology.com]

that ‘’headshops should not be banned’’. This move the minister states would drive these drugs underground and create a wider problem.

The solution put forward by the minister is to put money into widely publicising the negative effects of these headshops. This flies in the face of an expert Chris Luke in Cork medicine consultant based in Cork University Hospital (CUH), who specialises in "nightlife" drugs and advised these are very dangerous and an increase in psychosis has resulted for use. Headshops sell them under the not for human consumption caveat and this allows the drugs to be sold normally as plant food. Young people are taking these as alternatives to cocaine and extasy. It is for a balanced view worth mentioning that Jim McDaid has statistics to back this up which we will endeavour to source in details and the Minister is a Doctor.

Ireland Psychology Contacted Leo Varadkar Fine Gael TD for Dublin West previous to Minister McDaid's comments and who forwarded a recent press statement ‘’ Please see the statement issued today by Dr. James Reilly TD, the Fine Gael Spokesperson for Health.

Fine Gael National Press Office Press Statement by: Dr James Reilly TD, Health Spokesperson Dublin North Tuesday 2nd February 2010

Head Shops threaten our young people’s lives– Reilly Fine Gael Health Spokesman, Dr James Reilly TD, today (Tuesday) said the ongoing expansion of Head Shops threatens the health and lives of our young people and the scourge needs to be addressed immediately.

“Reports of deaths and psychiatric damage to young people in the media is very disturbing. Although the stimulant drug, BZP was banned last year after it was raised at the Health Committee by Fine Gael, we need to go much further.

“The Minister must immediately issue a Directive or draft new legislation to do the following things:

1. No substance for human consumption should be sold across any counter unless it has been approved by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland or the Irish Medicine Board;

2. It is clearly wrong to sell a product under the guise of one thing (eg plant food) when the common practice is for young adults to misuse it by consuming it.

3. Any analog of any banned substance must remain in quarantine (be unavailable for sale) until analysed and approved by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and/or the Irish Medicine Board;

4.All substances must have product liability insurance;

5.The Minister for Environment must tighten legislation on planning to specifically cover the so called Head Shop. “Until this matter is taken seriously by the Health and Environment Ministers, the physical health and psychological well-being of our children is on the line.”

Headshop Site

http://www.nirvanaheadshop.com/legal-highs/bestsellers/the-ministry-5-pills.html

Headshop Opens across from Naas Courthouse

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/disbelief-as-head-shop-opens-near-courthouse-2039141.html

Other News & Snippets

One in 10 calls to the Galway branch of the Samaritans this year were from people who wished to end their lives. That’s according to the charity’s annual review for 2009/2010. It reveals the Nuns’s Island based organisation received 40,000 contacts, including telephone calls, letters, e-mails and visits in 2009. Suicide affects thousands of people, she says. “In Ireland each year more people die by suicide than in road traffic accidents. Sadly, the current figures for this year show a substantial increase in the numbers of people who chose to end their lives by suicide. In this climate there can be no complacency on the part of any organisation involved in suicide prevention. Suicide affects thousands of people, including families and friends who have their lives shattered by the loss of a loved one.” “People can show suicidal feelings by being withdrawn, talking about being isolated and lonely, having definite ideas about ending their life and constantly dwelling on problems for which there seems to be no solution.” Where do Galway samaritans get the 55 thousand a year to run its activities = benefactors and volunteers. The irish government ..well there they are again ducking.

Audrey Deane, social justice and policy officer with the Society of St Vincent de Paul, advised that there is a need for leadership between National Educational Psychological Service and the HSE community health services when it comes to children’s mental health reported the Irish Times recently.
“In a shocking violation of their human rights, nearly 250 children were treated in adult in-patient units in 2008 because there were no child or adolescent places,” she told a press conference in Dublin to announce the setting up of the new alliance. “More than 3,000 children face unacceptably long waiting lists for mental health services, there is patchy service provision across the country, responses to that fail to meet basic needs and a lack of focus on early intervention that could prevent future problems.”
The coalition has been brought together by Amnesty International and the Children’s Rights Alliance.
Key demands: alliance wants action
The Children’s Mental Health Alliance is making four demands of the Government, to be delivered in the next two years. These are:
• an end to the use of adult inpatient beds for children;
• the provision by schools of mental health services when needed;
• the provision of forensic mental health services to children with mental health difficulties who come before the courts; and
• a mental-health assessment framework for all children in care.
Alan Shatter Fine Gael’s spokesman on Children said the deaths of young people such as Tracey Fay in 2002 and David Foley in 2005, as a result of drug overdoses while in HSE care, could be attributed to “wholly inadequate” provision for their mental wellbeing . The reports were called upon to be made public.>Sourced from the Irish Times

Headstrong.ie lead has told the evening hearld in a recent report that the recession is having a profoundly negative effect on the mental health of our children, a leading psychologist has claimed. Unemployment and financial troubles, which many Irish families are experiencing for the first time thanks to the recession, are contributing to feelings of anxiety in children. The claim is there is 3000 teenagers waiting for services and the lead has opened a service called jigsaw to assist with this issue .

The Irish times have reported recently that Des Kanavagh PNA General Secretary has said that mental health services expenditure has been hit in Ireland. Ireland moved away from institutional services to more community based services however overall expenditure accounts for 6.8% of spend in health down from 13.7%. (source Irish Times)

Report responsibly about suicide For further information, visit: www.headline.ie (Guidelines and a multimedia resource pack on responsible reporting are at www.headline.ie/multimedia-resource)Carl O Brien in the Irish Times reported the following interesting piece. Good investigative journalist and promoting ethics in a time of sell sell sell. News of the World published a man hanging from a bridge by suicide. This was hideous. Headline.ie is where you can sign up to recieve these reports so you can complain to the ombudsman and editor of the paper.''Casualty the TV Show ran a storyline involving someone attempting suicide by overdose there was a consequence.The number of recorded suicide attempts using the same drug jumped by almost 20 per cent. A week later the numbers were 9 per cent above average. Levels were back to normal three weeks later.Researchers in Oxford found that one in five attemptees were influenced by the programme. Headline is a State-funded organisation which is battling to help lift the stigma surrounding emotional distress, suicidal behaviour and mental illness.

In an article by Fiona Ness in the Sunday Business Post it reported on Mental health views from Professor McGorry who has developed a successful one stopshop treatment model in his native Australia, where he is clinical director of the country’s youth mental health initiative Headspace, which operates in 30 centres countrywide.Co-habitation of GP and Psychologists in a centre with visits from Psychiatrists & addiction or other councellors and social workers makes a holistic toolbox environment for adolescence to win. McCorry says 90% of kids caught early come back from psychosis. Its early detection through education and a system to flush them through is what is needed at ground level.
‘‘Adolescence is a crucial developmental period in a person’s life, when all the major disorders are appearing: psychosis, personality disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse.
Ireland’s youth suicide remains high at 14.4 per 100,000 population in the 15 to 24-year-old age group. That makes it the fourth-highest in Europe, and three times greater than Britain (4.8 per 100,000 population).Last year, more than 200 children were admitted to adult mental health facilities in Ireland, where they were treated by medical staff largely unqualified in child and adolescent psychiatry.‘‘The amount of resources devoted to the seriously mentally ill is at least 50 per cent below what it should be, so it’s only the severe cases that get access to treatment - usually by presenting to A&E. The rest are supposed to be managed in some kind of magical way by GPs without much support,” he says.Britain V Ireland > Britain surges aheadBritain is rolling out training for GPs from Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Britain has increased funding to mental health services by 50% over the last decade.
Their strategy is starting to roll out which early detection and treatment.
The cost of not doing this to the echequer to pushing this along.Irish Government has no training for GP's
Irish Government spend 50% less than promised in the vision for change report
Irish Government has not publicised what it has done with funds from sales of psychiatric hospital lands. THis was to pump resources into community care by selling off institutional dated sites.
Irish Government magically expects 15-25yr olds to sort out their mental health by presenting themselves to the gardai and A&E.
Irish system is two tiered dealing with older acute mental health issue segment and with no child services equiped to deal with these issues.
Irish system placed 200 kids in adult services care. This is counterproductive and harming states McCorreyThe list rolls on Mary Harney!!!

Psychology Information