{"id":3110,"date":"2022-12-14T15:47:38","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2022-12-14T15:55:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:55:01","slug":"its-very-hard-to-see-to-a-loved-one-with-cuffs-on-in-prison-because-theres-nowhere-else-for-him-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/?p=3110","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s very hard to see to a loved one, with cuffs on, in prison, because there’s nowhere else for him to go’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg is a kind, sensitive man. He has an intellectual disability and pronounced mental health difficulties, and when the services he depended on were removed, everything fell apart, his sister Catriona O’Toole tells Noel Baker.<\/p>\n

“There have been a few shocks,\u201d Catriona O\u2019Toole says. And then some.<\/p>\n

Dr Catriona O\u2019Toole is associate professor in Maynooth University\u2019s Department of Education, and is the older sister to Greg \u2014 a man who was placed in prison on remand, primarily due to a lack of alternatives; someone often in distress, a man who has repeatedly rubbed his head so furiously he has created a bald patch, and who during one court appearance was so disorientated by what was going on that he walked over to his family and simply handed them his shoes, asking that they take them home.<\/p>\n

\n

Greg, says Catriona, is a sensitive and kind man with various passions, and longtime difficulties \u2014 namely, an intellectual disability and pronounced mental health problems. But then last year some of his mental health supports were withdrawn. According to Catriona, the HSE decided that the intellectual disability was the overriding concern; except in his native Co Wicklow, those in disability services believed differently \u2014 that Greg\u2019s mental health concerns were paramount. He \u201cfell between the two stools,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, he is a kind, sensitive man who has a lot to give,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n

Read the full story here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3113,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions\/3113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}