O'hAilpin made headlines after striking and kicking teammate Cameron Cloke during an intra-club trial match on Friday with the incident referred to the Panel by the AFL umpires that officiated the match.
The club suspended him indefinitely later in the day and ordered him to train with the Northern Bullants while it awaited the outcome of the Panel's investigation before deliberating on any further sanction.
While sensitive to the uproar caused by the Irishman's actions, Ratten said the club had a duty of care to O'hAilpin who had shown genuine remorse following the incident.
"The AFL has gone through its review process and handed out a sanction," Ratten told afl.com.au exclusively from the club's Telstra AFL Community Camp in Seymour on Monday.
"We want to get Setanta back as quickly as possible and not leave him in the lurch and try and help him through this time and get back with the boys.
"We're just waiting for Mick Martin, our sports psych, to give us the all-clear there, but if it takes another three weeks or a month we'll work through that.
"Our sports psychologist will work through that and he'll probably have Setanta's fate in his hands with regards as to when he can re-join the group."
Ratten made it clear that the leadership of the club was still to officially determine a course of action, but clearly favoured bringing O'hAilpin back into the fold.
"It's not fantastic to have made a blue and then isolate someone," he said.
"How they feel and how their mental state goes [has to be taken into account]. We just want to make sure we look after him from that point of view.
"His brother's gone home now as well so he is left a bit by himself. We are his family and we don't want to abandon him and push him out. I just don't want to isolate him. He's seen that he's made a mistake and we're all entitled to forgiveness for [a mistake], so hopefully we can get him back and get him into it.
"Maybe him being here around the players might be better, but we're not sure yet and we'll work through that."
Ratten, who has spoken with the player regularly and visited his home in the aftermath of the incident, was confident he had made his views on the incident clear to O'hAilpin.
"We've gone through the act and what it represents in our game and that's it's not on in footy or out of it," he said.
"He does understand what he's done and he's very remorseful and Cameron's really accepting of his apology so there's no grudge held or anything like that which is fantastic."
The AFL has ruled that O'hAilpin's penalty can be served during the NAB Cup meaning a berth in the grand final for the Blues would make the Irishman available for senior selection in round one of the home-and-away series.
