‘There’s a denial about severe mental illness and the challenges it poses.’ Prof Brendan Kelly on the evolution of mental healthcare

The psychiatrist explains why more resources must be invested in acute conditions

Prof Brendan Kelly pictured with the family cat Trixie, at his home in Dublin. Photo: Frank McGrath

Paul Whitington

Technology is not co-operating. A Zoom call with Professor Brendan Kelly at Tallaght Hospital has malfunctioned: we can see each other, and I can hear him, but he can’t hear me. “I’m literally in an echo chamber,” he jokes, before I hold up a note with my phone number. And so we conduct our business arcanely – a fitting metaphor perhaps, for the isolating states of mental illness.

Kelly is a professor of psychiatry at Trinity College, clinical professor at the UCD school of medicine, and a ­consultant psychiatrist at Tallaght Hospital. He has written extensively on the history and treatment of mental health in Ireland and on July 21 will appear at the University of Galway in conversation with Caitriona Crowe.