{"id":286636,"date":"2026-02-08T02:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T02:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/286636\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T02:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T02:53:22","slug":"family-of-cork-man-who-died-in-prison-to-feature-in-documentary-on-psychiatric-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/286636\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Cork man who died in prison to feature in documentary on psychiatric care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> The grieving family of a Cork man who died in prison will feature in a new documentary examining how Irish jails are being used for people with mental illness with devastating and sometimes deadly consequences.<\/p>\n<p> Andrew Gearns, aged 29, made an attempt on his life in Cork Prison in September 2020 and later died in hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">An independent review of all medical care in Cork Prison was recommended by a jury at the inquest into his death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">But Mr Gearn\u2019s  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-40956899.html\">family is still pushing for answers.<\/a>\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr Gearns was vulnerable when jailed in Cork prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He was suffering distressing delusions about being stabbed and had some six risk factors for suicide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, he was seen by prison medical staff for less than five minutes on the day of his fatal attempt on his own life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The former engineer from Model Farm Rd was heard calling for his mother and father in the hours before his death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">His case is part of a special two-part RT\u00c9 Investigates series, to be broadcast this Monday and Tuesday at 9.35pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n             RT\u00c9 Investigates &#8211; The Psychiatric Care Scandal in Ireland will examine Ireland\u2019s mental health system and how the criminalisation of mental illness leaves families and individuals impacted and abandoned by the State.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Some 20 ago, the State unveiled plans for psychiatric care in Ireland. Many old wards were shut, with a plan to open specialist services instead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> &#8220;Which should have meant opening up lots of facilities, healthcare facilities. It could have been assisted living, nurses, care. It didn&#8217;t happen,&#8221; a quote from the documentary says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">But without acute beds, patients with mental illness are being sent to prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">To investigate the true extent of this, the programme travelled to court hearings and inquests across the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It spoke to the families of inmates and those working at the coal face as well as examining first-hand accounts, investigation, and autopsy reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It also visited the prison landings that are struggling to cope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grieving family of a Cork man who died in prison will feature in a new documentary examining&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[79,93,61,60,410,6085],"class_list":{"0":"post-286636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-rte"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}