People are taking their lives because of Ireland’s failed mental health system
Ollie, 38, tells of surviving suicide bid & urges more care for most vulnerable
when you come out as an outpatient all of that stops and you’re left alone. If there were more services for outpatients as there are for inpatients a lot of people would still be with us.” Ollie, who recently got engaged to Michelle, added putting people with addictions into psychiatric units nationwide as there is nowhere else for them to go is “extremely dangerous and unnecessary”. He alleged: “The last time I was in there a person came in looking for drugs and another fella told him, ‘Go out there to such a person and you’ll get all you need’.”
Meanwhile, campaigners Gary Fitzgibbon and Maria Ryan, whose late brother Tommy suffered from mental health issues and drug addiction, have organised a protest over the state of the acute unit in Ennis Hospital on tomorrow at noon.
The protest, which is being backed by Sinn Fein, will highlight there are 190,000 people in the Clare/north Tipperary area but only 38 beds. Maria said: “There are lots of people in crisis and just because the 38 beds are full they’re saying we can’t take you so you’ll have to go to Shannon Doc [out of hours GP service].
“Anybody with anorexia there is no clinic at all in Ireland so they are put into the acute units but the nurses aren’t qualified to help. There are only three public beds in all of Ireland.”
When contacted by the Irish Mirror, the HSE said: “We do not comment on individual cases.”