Blog
Traveller Pride Week is an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the community throughout Ireland. Members of the College were there to meet with REFOCUS member, Helena Power, who was instrumental in organising the Kilkenny Traveller Community Movement’s event at the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny on Tuesday, 11th July 2023. President, Dr Lorcan Martin and REFOCUS […]
In this video update, CPsychI President Dr Lorcan Martin discusses recent negative media and online commentary on psychiatry in Ireland, and outlines what the College is doing to address and contribute to the conversation. As a College, we continue to advocate for the valuable work of psychiatrists, and are always available to advise individual College […]
Following the announcement of the second strand of the €5 million pilot programme this week, the College of Psychiatrists welcomes the imminent roll-out of targeted, responsive wellbeing and mental health supports at primary school level. The provision of one-to-one counselling sessions for primary school age children, early intervention by trained and supervised ‘education wellbeing/mental health […]
Evidence indicates that 30-50% of people with severe mental illness have a co-existing substance misuse problem, with a study of people attending an Irish Community Mental Health Team noting 44% report problem drug use and/or harmful alcohol use in the previous year. Following collaboration with the HSE Dual Diagnosis National Clinical Programme, the College of […]
The Irish Times has today published a letter by CPsychI President Dr Lorcan Martin and Chair of the Child & Adolescent Faculty, Dr Patricia Byrne in response to an opinion piece by Professor Mac MacLachlan on 22 May. Read the letter in full below or on the Irish Times website here. Independently, Professor Matthew Sadlier discussed the topic with Professor MacLachlan on RTÉ Radio […]
Kieran Cuddihy, host of The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk radio, is joined by Dr Eric Kelleher, Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist and member of the College Faculty of Liaison Psychiatry to discuss the implications of the potential introduction of assisted dying legislation in Ireland and concerns around safeguarding for those with mental illness. People Before Profit TD, […]
The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland strongly condemns the conflict that has erupted in Sudan and appeals for a permanent ceasefire to protect its citizens and Irish-based doctors currently in the country. We support our fellow psychiatrists and psychiatrist trainees and urge all relevant agencies, including the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish consulates […]
Consultant Learning Disability Psychiatrists Dr Brian Fitzgerald and Dr Linda O’Rourke discuss the development of a College eModule on the basics of autism and best practice for supporting autistic patients. The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland is developing an eModule for doctors to provide information on Autism, to help doctors recognise and understand what Autism […]
Dr Noha Ibrahim examines the challenges facing autistic students at 3rd level, and looks further at the opportunities to address the experiences and outcomes for this population in higher education. In recent years, universities have become more aware of the number of neurodiverse students, including autistic students, attending higher education[1, 2]. We know neurodiverse undergraduates […]
As part of our series marking World Autism Month 2023, Dr Linda O’Rourke explores the origin of the terminology around autism throughout medical literature, tracing a path to the more inclusive and person-centred language we use today. Although the word autism as we understand it today dates from only 1943, when we look down through […]