CITY TRIBUNE
Coroner questions quality of psychiatric care
A young man who died by suicide when he set alight a car in which he was the sole occupant could have suffered as a result of “revolving door” mental health services, an inquest into his death was told.
The 31-year-old man died when his car was engulfed by flames at Corrib Park on New Year’s Eve, 2017.
In his deposition to the inquiry, the man’s father told Coroner, Dr Ciarán MacLoughlin, that both he and his wife believed their son had left to go to his girlfriend’s house.
Sub-station officer at Galway Fire and Rescue, Ciarán Oliver, told the inquiry that fire services had been called to the scene at 11.27pm on the night in question and while it was not immediately apparent, they soon became aware that there was somebody in the vehicle.
“It was apparent from the nature of the fire that there was no sign of life in the person in the car,” he stated.
Dr Dennis Higgins confirmed the death at 9.40am on the morning of January 1, 2018. The deceased had to be identified using dental records.
Consultant Psychiatrist at UHG, Dr Brian Hallahan, told the inquest that the deceased had first been referred to the hospital’s Mental Health Services in 2008 but despite numerous appointments and several re-referrals, his engagement with the service had been minimal.
Dr Hallahan said it was “per usual practice” that if appointments were missed and a patient disengaged with the services, they would be discharged from the service, adding that they could always be re-referred by their GP.
“[The deceased’s] last engagement with Galway Mental Health Services was in 2014,” said Dr Hallahan.
The Coroner, Dr MacLoughlin, expressed alarm that this would be considered “usual practice”.
“It would appear to me that the deceased was unwell for a long time and part of his unwellness was his inability to continue contact with the services.
“It’s just letter after letter after letter. It’s a revolving door with no humane result,” said Dr MacLoughlin.
“To end his life in such a violent manner is distressing to everyone,” the Coroner said.
Dr MacLoughlin pointed out that an effective psychiatric community nursing system could combat this, given that some psychiatric patients are not unwilling, but rather unable to make contact with the services.
“A lot of psychiatric patients are not in a position to make a decision in their own best interests and the ramifications of that decision may not hit them.
“Why don’t you have a community psychiatric nurse to let them know that there is a caring, responsible and informative service there,” said Dr MacLoughlin.
Dr Hallahan said there was a mechanism in place for home visits and that many patients were in touch with an occupational therapist.
He disputed that the service was not caring, responsible and informative.
Dr MacLoughlin said that the inquest was unfortunately the only opportunity for the effectiveness of these mechanisms to be publicly examined.
“The only opportunity any public inquiry can look at these services is when someone dies.
“Had [the deceased] been attended to, or maybe seen by a community psychiatric nurse, he may still have refused to go, but we don’t know,” he said.
Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Linda Mulligan, carried out a post mortem examination on the deceased on January 2.
“There was extensive fire damage over the majority of the body. Histology confirmed the presence of soot in the airways,” said Dr Mulligan.
Dr Mulligan said there was no indication from the post mortem of the involvement of another party.
Dr MacLoughlin extended his sincere sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased.
“The cause of death was the inhalation of toxic gasses as a result of a fire,” said Dr MacLoughlin in passing verdict.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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