Reinstate Louise Bayliss - Patient Advocate and Whistleblower

[C. Flower]

Isn't it time that we looked after our whistleblowers ?

Louise Bayliss has had her contract cancelled by the Irish Advocacy Network after bringing the attention of the public (via Joe Duffy) to the inhumane move of mental health patients to a locked ward over Christmas, for staffing reasons.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0122/baylissl.html

A question has been raised as to whether the HSE might have put pressure on the IAN,

TDs of both parties are pressing for Louise Bayliss to be reinstated.

[Dr. FIVE]

follow here https://twitter.com/#!/Louiseinflight

[ang]

Time to take a stand against this type of harassment and bullying facilitated by Government.

[Holly]

Louise Bayliss phoned Liveline about another matter to the incarceration of patients in locked wards over the Christmas holidays. It was only due to the nosy interrogation of her by Joe Duffy, asking for details, that she mentioned these specifics. RTE needs to take more responsibility for placing a trainee in such a predicament.

[firefox]

Know a person doing vol.work in kilkenny for 25 years..When asked by clients at Dept.of Psychiatry to visit them to bring them cigarettes etc.She always did,until one evening was met by doctor ************ and a nurse **** and asked to leave and told she was not wanted there.Her own brother died by suicide while a patient at that hospital so she is well aware of their shortfalls.She was told she could not visit without prior appt and not to talk to any patients only the one she was visiting!She has not gone into dept since but continues her vol work outside hospital.One must question why they did not want her talking to other patients.Perhaps like louise she is prepared to speak out.Well done also to John MacGuiness for all his support in addressing mental health issues and questioning suicides in Kilkenny....Good on you Louise ..

[Vash]

The line presented by the Irish Advocacy Network that she hadn't completed her FETAC Grade 4 training course (and they now didn't have time to train her) all sounds dodgy. If it was fundamental to her carrying out her role then it should have been arranged in the beginning.

[firefox]

The line presented by the Irish Advocacy Network that she hadn't completed her FETAC Grade 4 training course (and they now didn't have time to train her) all sounds dodgy. If it was fundamental to her carrying out her role then it should have been arranged in the beginning.

Agree with you Vash a load of bull its because she spoke out end of story.

[C. Flower]

Louise Bayliss phoned Liveline about another matter to the incarceration of patients in locked wards over the Christmas holidays. It was only due to the nosy interrogation of her by Joe Duffy, asking for details, that she mentioned these specifics. RTE needs to take more responsibility for placing a trainee in such a predicament.

Out of interest, Holly, what did she phone in about ?

[Rich]

Isn't it time that we looked after our whistleblowers ?

Louise Bayliss has had her contract cancelled by the Irish Advocacy Network after bringing the attention of the public (via Joe Duffy) to the inhumane move of mental health patients to a locked ward over Christmas, for staffing reasons.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0122/baylissl.html

A question has been raised as to whether the HSE might have put pressure on the IAN,

TDs of both parties are pressing for Louise Bayliss to be reinstated.

+1 Most civilized jurisdictions have law that protects whistleblowers.

[Holly]

Out of interest, Holly, what did she phone in about ?

She had been involved with a group of single parents concerned about budgetary cuts as she is a single parent herself and this is why she called Liveline. Once he had her on the phone, Joe Duffy asked her a lot of personal questions which is his manner; what she did, where she worked, specifically what hospital she was visiting, etc. He drew out of her that she was aware how cuts were causing hardship on elderly patients. He then asked for an example and so she told him. Notice how she puts it in this clip at 3:42 - 4:42. Joe is a nosy creature.
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0122/media-3174849.html

[C. Flower]

+1 Most civilized jurisdictions have law that protects whistleblowers.

I can see well why there has been a great reluctance to protect whistleblowers in Ireland.

Society here operates in tightly networked cliques, groups, tribes, clubs, call them what you will, within which the favoured scratch each others backs in a perpetual cycle of mutual benefit.

"He is not one of ours" damns a soul to perdition and acute pecuniary, protection, and career disadvantage.

Whistleblowers break the unspoken oath of omerta and open up cracks in these closed, privileged, circles.

[Vash]

She had been involved with a group of single parents concerned about budgetary cuts as she is a single parent herself and this is why she called Liveline. Once he had her on the phone, Joe Duffy asked her a lot of personal questions which is his manner; what she did, where she worked, specifically what hospital she was visiting, etc. He drew out of her that she was aware how cuts were causing hardship on elderly patients. He then asked for an example and so she told him. Notice how she puts it in this clip at 3:42 - 4:42. Joe is a nosy creature.
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0122/media-3174849.html

In a way this adds to her case because it shows she did not deliberately set out to raise this on Liveline.

[C. Flower]

She seems to me to have been an exceptionally good advocate.

[Baron von Biffo]

Audi alteram partem as they insist on saying down at the Four Courts - Hear both sides.

We only know as much of this story as Ms Bayliss has told us. We cannot know the full detail of the employer's position unless the matter comes before some tribunal or court.

It's not immediately clear that she deserves the mantle of whistle-blower with its attendant adulation. By her own admission this wasn't a matter she set out to make public. Rather it was something that came out in the course of an interview on unrelated matter. Whatever the beneficial consequences, we should ask if the revelation was a matter of genuine advocacy or an inadvertent indiscretion.

[Newsy]

It appears rather ironic that following this womans' highlighting of the plight of 5 women within the mental health service, that she should lose her position.

I understand she was a volunteer of Irish Advocacy Network Ltd., whose purpose is

our primary purpose is to provide information, choice and support to people experiencing mental health difficulties, enabling them to take control of their lives.

http://www.irishadvocacynetwork.com/index.html

It really is a disgrace that following this woman adhering to the purpose of this group, is then treated in such a shameful manner.

And furthermore, they didn't even have the bottle to be honest with her and tell her that 'some people' were embarrassed by her revelation and therefore decided to punish her, by dismissing her.