Heartfelt plea for reform of services
A mental health campaigner who is on a waiting list for nine months for a primary care psychology appointment has appealed to Government to invest in the ‘poor relation’ of the health services.
Mary McCarthy, a mother of four from Williamstown, said people with mental illness were abandoned during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“People with mental health problems, be it anxiety right up to serious schizophrenia, are the most vulnerable people in society but it feels like we’ve been forgotten and abandoned.
“Through the whole pandemic, what has the Government done? Nothing was put in place and yet people are crying out for help. They have just forgotten about us,” Mary told the Connacht Tribune.
She first became involved with psychiatric services in 2005, when a traumatic event from 1990 came to the forefront and she was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety and depression.
Since then, she “made numerous attempts at suicide and self-harming,” she said, and has had first-hand experience of the psychiatric services in Roscommon and Emergency Department in Ballinasloe.
In 2018, the 56-year-old was devastated when she separated from her husband.
She contacted local mental health services to seek support, but no appointments were available.
After waiting weeks to be seen, she eventually took an overdose.
“I feel let down,” said Mary, who added she was lucky to good family, friend support and a decent employer.
The pandemic presented its own challenges. In January, Mary suffered a mental health crisis and sought treatment from Portiuncula Hospital. Despite her distress, she had no choice but to wait in an Emergency Department for over five hours.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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