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Written by The Wellbeing Foundation
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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:09 |
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We are extremely sad to announce that Dr Michael Corry has died after a short illness.
Dr Corry has been a fearless campaigner for the
rights of mental health service users and all those suffering
psychological distress; an opponent of bio-psychiatry and its exclusive
reliance on psycho-pharmacology; an implacable campaigner for the
abolition of ECT as a so-called 'therapy"; and a compassionate healer
appreciated by thousands of patients.
His career spanned work as a hospital doctor in
Uganda in the Amin era before he qualified as a psychiatrist and
psychotherapist, work as a public service consultant psychiatrist in St
Brendan's Hospital, Dublin, and private practice. His imagination and
desire to get things done powered both his work as director of the
EU-sponsored Resocialisation Project at St Brendan's in the early
1980s, and being a founder of the privately-funded Clane Hospital in
Kildare, where he served as consultant psychiatrist from the early days.
He was one of the founders of the Institute of
Psychosocial Medicine in Dun Laoghaire in 1987, which developed from a
four-partner practice into an organisation with over 20 practitioners
and nationwide renown as a healing centre, and which also provides
training courses and encourages research and advocacy.
In 2004, Michael began a series of articles on
depression in the Irish Times which led to the establishment of the
monthly Depression Dialogues seminars which he moderated with his
partner, Dr Aine Tubridy, and to the launch of the depressiondialogues
website on Valentine's Day 2005.
In 2006 he, together with a number of mental health
campaigners who supported his humanist, existential approach to the
treatment of psychological distress, set up The Wellbeing Foundation to
pursue the aim of substituting a rounded, holistic and compassionate
approach to mental health for the exclusively pharmaceutical, and often
dangerous and ineffective, approach of conventional psychiatry.
Most recently, his work in campaigning for an end to
electro-shock 'therapy' led to a private members Bill being introduced
into the Senate which would bar the forced use of ECT — use without the
informed consent of any patient. While the Government did not accept
the Bill as proposed, the Minister in charge, John Moloney, has
initiated a comprehensive consultation process which we hope will lead
to the first steps being taken towards ending this barbaric practice.
That would be a fitting memorial to Michael's memory.
Condolences:
The Irish Times allows users to sign a Book of Condolences online:
http://notices.irishtimes.com/3607459
We are also happy to receive comments and condolences at
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:15 |
