I am grateful to the joint committee for inviting me to discuss the topic of suicide prevention in prisons. I am the director of the Irish Institute of Naturopathic Medicine. I served on the executive committee of the initial UK cranial osteopathic association. I have initiated and led the development of a major regime in the treatment and management of violence in UK and Irish prisons under court order. I served on the internal task force on the prevention of suicide in high security UK prisons.
The research and the programme initiated and developed treatment of violence in the prisons, communities and prevention of suicide was undertaken by Kings College Hospital Centre for Crime and Justice Studies UK in 1998 and was commissioned by the then director of operations, Professor Alan Walker. The Irish Institute of Naturopathic Medicine was the overall institute of complementary and natural medicine UK award winner in 2009. I have been involved in suicide prevention paediatric conduct disorders programme for young offenders, autism and special needs, and I have provided conflict mediation in the treatment and management of violence in deprived, disadvantaged communities with a high suicide rate in Ireland.
Our research was presented at an EU seminar in Brussels in 2013. In December 2013, I was invited to meet the EU health commissioner, Jurgen Scheftlein, in Luxembourg to discuss the treatment regime as it was receiving global attention. The Irish institute is in collaboration on EU pilot projects research and medical training with the National University, California, which has invited us to work on research with it, in amelioration of depression, offender behaviour, post-traumatic birth injuries, suicide prevention and post-traumatic neurological disorders with war veterans. That is the university's speciality. In June I will speak with the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, of which I am a member, about the pioneers of cranial osteopathy in the UK conference.
I am here to discuss an important matter of keeping people alive and preventing suicide in prisons through the provision of an integrated mental health regime pilot project in the Irish prison system. Mental health and suicide prevention is an important issue highlighted by the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease and the European Commission and represents a real cost to the national health service and the Department of Justice and Equality. In a recent meeting in Munich hosted by the International College of Neuropharmacology the need for future funding in this area in Ireland was highlighted.
As I said, I met the EU Commissioner, Jurgen Scheftlein EU Commission in Luxembourg in December and we discussed steps for inclusion in Horizon 2020 for EU projects stemming initially from Ireland. There is global interest in the treatment developed by the Irish Institute of Naturopathic Medicine. In the discussion there was an option for integration for the prevention of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
The economic benefits include reduction in cost of treatment, hospitalisation, violence and suicide among young offenders including male and female prisoners. The Irish Institute of Naturopathic Medicine aims to build on the research and evaluation of the regime which I developed, which was undertaken in the UK by the Centre of Crime and Justice Studies, King's College Hospital. Suicide is an added dimension to death in the family of a prisoner. The person's family loses him or her in a violent death separated in fear by circumstances they do not understand. The loss affects the family from generation to generation, forever feeding a need for failure and the cycle of wasteful tragedy. One suicide within prison is too many and is everyone’s trauma. What is being done to prevent it?
A serious observation and constructive approach to self-inflicted harm and death through suicide, taking into account survivors' opinions, is necessary. As a community, we need to understand the pain held by the person who is lost to failure and doubt about his or her ability and purpose in living. We do not want our lives decentralised by a gaping wound from the past. It is costing us more than billions of euros to manage the symptoms of the problem. Depression, self-harm and attempted suicide are the most frequently reported symptoms of patients with histories of trauma, violation and childhood deprivation. Clinical studies will be reviewed that show a significant reduction of attempted suicide in individuals who have undertaken the programme. I have made some of this information available.
The object of the pilot project within the Irish prison system is the preservation and protection prisoners' health, well being and quality of life. It also supports their co-dependents, others working within or relating to a prison environment and those affected by crime. The provision of professional, comprehensive, medical treatments, including a wide range of natural therapeutic practices, requires the application of a specific treatment programme; the provision of training and education to individuals about the treatments; and the promotion and carrying out of research, evaluation and clinical trials and the dissemination of their results.
The pilot project, for which we are asking the committee's recommendation, has collaboration with significant academic researchers and professors including Dr. Harald Gaier, of the Steinbeis-Transfer-Institut, Berlin, who is a homeopath, naturopath, acupuncturist, medical herbalist and teacher trainer for the university. Professor Jack Hamlin, National University, La Jolla, California has issued an agreement for research to the Irish institute, which awaits our signature. Professor Hamlin holds a degree in sociology and psychology from San Diego State University, a masters in forensic sciences from National University La Jolla and a juris doctorate from the University of San Diego, school of law. As an associate professor and lead faculty members for the alternative dispute resolution programme at National University, he has lectured internationally regarding conflict transformation theory and practice. For the past five years, he has been a mediator and trainer for the San Diego restorative justice mediation programme.
We request that the Joint Committee for Justice, Defence and Equality consider a recommendation to implement an integrated medical health regime in the treatment of suicide prevention and violence pilot project within the Irish prison regime. I am happy to answers any questions.
