Teen suicides hightlight mental health failings

A teenaged boy from Galway took his own life earlier this summer. He was only 14. Let that sink in for a moment: a 14-years-old dying by suicide. Not on TV or in America; just down the road from you.

The heartache and grief and suffering the family are experiencing is unimaginable. The pain might never dissipate, even with time.

It could just as easily be your son or daughter, your niece or nephew, your grandchild. Let that settle in the pit of your gut for a moment.

Try to visualise a 14-years-old – or any child – you know. Now think about them taking an overdose. Or hanging themselves. Or cutting their wrists.

And then think about the people in positions of power who don’t care enough to effect change.

It’s frightening and just doesn’t bear thinking about. But we must think about it.

We must all take a good hard look at ourselves and the society we live in and ask what is it we’re doing wrong that compels someone so young to take such drastic action.

Politicians, in particular, need to cop on.

This newspaper has highlighted several instances where suicidal people are being turned away from the Emergency Department of the city’s public hospital.

Why is it that people at risk of suicide and who present to the hospital in an emergency situation at the Emergency Department, are treated like any other patient, and left waiting on trolleys in corridors for hours on end?

Why is it Samaritans Galway (091-561222 or Freecall 116 123), and Pieta House (Freecall 1800 247 247), both vital services, couldn’t survive without the generosity of public donations and volunteers?

Why is it that national policymakers closed the psychiatric unit in Ballinasloe, to ‘reconfigure’ mental health services, yet didn’t provide sufficient funding or resources to manage the change?

Another symptom of the stark failure to grasp this problem, is the fact that more children than ever are being treated in mental health units designed for adults because CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) cannot cope.

Why is it that the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone had to be embarrassed into providing funding to keep the Galway-based Youth Work Ireland’s counselling service at Prospect Hill going for another year?

Why does it take articles in the Tribune and Tuam Herald, and a sustained campaign by local Opposition politicians, for the decision-makers to realise that this is a vital service for young people?

Why, oh why, oh why?

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.