While I have the utmost sympathy for the family involved, I feel that if it was mandated that families had to be informed that someone had sought treatment for depression or another mental illness, this would cause far more problems than it would solve, as it would create a barrier against many people seeking help. While anyone presenting to a doctor or other professional with mental health difficulties should be encouraged to involve their family in their recovery, many people, for reasons of their own may not wish their family to know.

Having a mental health problem should not mean that people should lose their autonomy or right to confidentiality. Of course potential risks should be assessed and appropriate action taken if a risk to other people is identified, but to suggest that families should be informed in every case would be quite damaging.

This is a really awful tragic case, and I can understand Mrs Butlers point of view.

Confidentiality is key to a good doctor-patient relationship, particularly in the area of mental health. Automatic discussion and involvement of family/partners etc would not be helpful, as it would deter people from seeking help; besides in some cases the quality of the relationship with family/partner etc is a factor in the person’s difficulties.

Best practise involves speaking with the partner/family routinely with the patients consent, and certainly engaging them in the care process, if possible.

A doctor or other clinician has an obligation to break confidentiality if the person themself or another is at risk. This is what happens now, and I’m not sure how it can practically be improved on without compromising the therapeutic relationship.

Such a very tragic case.
The role of the family is important for the recovery of persons experiencing mental health issues, as is the role of society and multidisciplinary care. The family needs ongoing support and knowledge regarding the mental health issue and the patient should be treated with dignity and respect.
Families cannot always help if they do not understand the mental health illness.

Moves in this direction are urgently needed. Frequently those with mental illness are discharged into the care of their family while medical staff refuse to communicate with the families, citing confidentiality. While an individual’s right to confidentiality is important there are circumstances when this needs to be over ridden in the interests of the patient and others. It can happen that a person becomes paranoid about their family members and wishes to block them from involvement n their treatment. While this may be understandable, these people are then discharged and often maintain involvement with their family with the family completely in the dark about what is happening with their treatment. When things fall apart it is inevitably left to the family to pick up the pieces.

First off, my sincere condolences are with this lady who has lost her husband and children. This pain is so extreme it should never be felt by anyone.

The article says that this man was receiving treatment for depression, which although best practice guidelines are to try all treatment options before drugs are involved, sadly to cut costs, most people get written a prescription the moment they mention depression. The counselling and therapy are seen as follow ups, and this is dangerous.

SSRI and SNRI drugs (anti depressants) list some pretty scary stuff as known side effects, most disturbingly: homicide and / or suicide, and sadly in most cases where you hear of a shocking murder suicide, it turns out that the perpetrator was taking anti depressants.

Having been put on these drugs myself (and almost killing myself) I know that they can really affect the way you think about things, for me it felt as though I had to kill myself to get back to my life – I felt trapped inside myself.

People all over the world have fallen foul of this over reliance on drugs rather than other therapeutic treatment (which is supposed to be used first), and left a destructive path behind them. It’s time these drugs were restricted for when nothing else works rather than being prescribed like jelly tots. It’s literally a matter of life and death.
http://www.ssristories.com
It’s not like they are that effective anyway.
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

I want to place an idea before the readers here. cases of abuse HAVE to be reported to police, without any confidentiality clause.
in the case of a father who is receiving treatment for depression, if any family member was deemed to be at risk maybe it should be mandatory that the police be informed.
in the case of a person suffering from depression, would it not be in the best interest of everyone involved that the whole family is fully integrated into the process of a better outcome.
no one lives in isolation, and many get great support from family.
if you are depressed, the first role of the mental health provider is to nurture family involvement as best practise.
you simply cannot hope to teat an individual alone in this instance. this is my belief.
i hope that if the services had any inkling this man was a treat to his children that they didnt hide this face, under the guise of ‘confidentiality’ at all times.

the hse might want to start by taking a look at the number of times that fathers are separated from their kids. i have heard too many stories of guys coming home one night to find their stuff out on the street. next thing you know they are living in a bedsit and paying for the mortgage where the ex partner/wife is living with his kids and the new boyfriend. she gets to decide when if ever he gets to visit. whilst yes not all men are perfect i would not be so deluded as to think so, i also do not think all women are prefect either. from what i can see there seems to be an anti male bias within the Irish justice system with regards to family law. the assumption seem to be at the moment is that the woman is always the better caregiver that the state will take on the role as provider, that men if they do not comply with the wishes of the other half can be easily chucked out and cut off from the kids on the say so of the woman. males have been relegated to being nothing more then glorified donors and have been rendered obsolete by these laws. why are family court judgements not made public. bar protecting the name of the people involved which could be done by censoring the names there is no rational reason to keep the the judges decisions away from the public. i could go on like this all day but sufficient to say as far as i can see men get a very raw deal and are treated unfairly in this country when it comes to law

Seamus you have totally gone off the subject here. We really dont need to hear about your own personal battle !!!

What?