A local family have made a desperate cry for help for their young son and brother to receive meaningful care from the State’s health service before the troubled youth succeeds in taking his own life.
The 17-year-old from the Avondhu area has experienced a prolonged period of severe mental health, culminating in several recent suicide attempts, with his family calling for the State to do more to help him overcome his mental health issues.
The boy’s mother says the State has failed to adequately deal with his ongoing issues, causing a great strain on her and her daughter, who is currently preparing to sit her Leaving Certificate exams this summer.
Since Christmas Day of last year, he has been experiencing dramatic, troubling and on-going mental health problems.
Since that day around 14 weeks ago, he has had no less than seven trips to local hospitals, many times after traumatic suicide attempts and increasingly painful and violent episodes of mental ill-health.
While his mother and sister have been doing their best to care for him, given that he is a physically healthy and strong 17-year-old boy, those loving efforts are growing less effective as each despairing week passes.
On numerous occasions, the local Gardaí have had to be called to the family home to calm him, contain him or ensure his safety, as well as the safety of his mother and sister, who have accused the State’s medical system of being unwilling to come up with any long-term programme of care.
On many occasions, his condition has gone so desperate that a HSE ambulance has been called, and sometimes …
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