Chapter 6: The Challenges of Mental Health, Addiction and Dual Diagnosis in an Irish Context

Chapter 6 explores the cultural impact of mental health, addiction, and dual diagnosis challenges with a specific focus on Irish society. The chapter takes a staggered approach whereby each type of challenge is separated and discussed individually, before being joined together through discussions on dual diagnosis as presented in Section 6.4. These discussions are designed to highlight the cultural deviance that is perceived by other people towards those with such diagnosis over the years that such diagnosis have been prevalent in history. In particular, the discussions around dual diagnosis here will strengthen the discussion in Chapter 4: ‘The Conundrum of Dual Diagnosis’ and will set the groundwork for the remainder of this text.