Ms Sinéad McGee:

I am little choked up after hearing these ladies' stories. Unfortunately, I also have many stories which are quite similar and sad. I thank everybody for inviting me here this morning. It is a great honour. I am the chairperson of Dublin city and county CAMHS carers forum. We come up with ideas and suggestions on improving the service. As part of this I attend a monthly management meeting. At present, our goal is to run coffee mornings to support parents and carers because when our children are not well we go through an awful lot ourselves. It is a constant battle for us.

Through this, we have found issues in the service, which I will run through quite quickly. There are waiting lists and waiting times to access the service. There is a lack of autism services. There is a gap for people who have mental health issues but who are not severe enough to be seen by CAMHS. In the Dublin north county area there are no primary care psychology centres. There is a lack of professional expertise in CAMHS and not every discipline is available on every team. There is a difficulty recruiting and retraining staff. Many locum and temporary staff work on each team, which leads to staff turnover. This has an enormous impact on our young children who have to start all over again with new therapists and have to tell their story all over again. I have no words for the placement of children in adult psychiatric wards. The young person has so much going on already. I cannot even begin to imagine the impact this has on young people and their family. There is also a huge concern for those aged between 18 and 25 in mental health services. We need to look at having a youth mental health service for this age bracket. It is a huge transition to go from a child service to an adult service.

As I am the chairperson of the carer's forum I have some letters and stories of real-life situations of what parents cope with, some of which I will share. I find them all moving and I have my tissues to hand.

One family has a very active suicidal 16 year old boy at home and they have been so fearful of his safety that they have had to take him to the accident and emergency department. As he is 16 this is at an adult hospital, which is very scary for an adult never mind a young person. They get referred to CAMHS. They then get their son home from hospital after having the talk from the doctor about safety issues, such as locking away tablets, making sure no knives are left out and making sure there is nothing he can put around his neck or anything with which he can harm himself. They safeproof their home and then they wait as the vigil starts. They continually watch out and no one sleeps. Siblings and family are in turmoil with it all. They are trying to help him stay alive. They are the last hope trying to do the job, the resuscitating and the ventilator, keeping him safe for goodness knows how long, to try and get the help he so desperately needs. Every day feels like a lifetime. Every night is endless. "Just keep him alive" they keep telling themselves. Everyone says to ask for help when someone does not feel in a good place but when people do it is not there. Their lives are on hold.

Another parent who wrote had to leave a €660 a week professional job that the person loved to take what is described as a €300 a week horrible job in a supermarket to be at home at the same time as the person's daughter, who was waiting for the service. The person was afraid to leave her at home alone. That decision will impact that person and the family for ever. It is not exactly a decision that can be explained on a CV. That parent stated immediate and local services would save lives and children do not shut down for the weekend. The service from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, is definitely an issue.

Another family wrote to say they had a 15 year old son who was suicidal and came to them after putting a knife to his throat. He cried for hours and did not want to live due to bullying at school and the pressures of fifth year. They got an urgent referral to CAMHS. He was walking the floors every night and they had him on 24 hour watch. They telephoned CAMHS daily they were so worried. A week later they got an appointment for three month's time. Their son was still suicidal and they had not slept, making sure he was okay.

Another parent wrote to say hers is not quite the usual story. Her husband took ill last October and by the end of November they knew he was terminal. Both her children have ASD, ADD and dyspraxia as well as some medical issues. She tried to get advice from the service on how to tell the children about their father. She left messages to telephone urgently but could not get past reception. Eventually her husband had to go into a hospice where the medical social worker also tried to make contact. The service eventually got back to her, which took a couple of weeks, but by the time it did it was too late. Her husband passed away in April and she was sent an appointment for 4 July, which was too late.

Another parent noted how they could never stop watching them or ever relax. They felt isolated and wished that someone could do something to help them. If not, they felt, their kids would die. They feel our children should be our priority.

A 36 year old man is trying this best to go to work with his daughter very unwell. He is fighting to try to get support for her. His relationship with his wife has also been very strained with the stress of the situation and he now knows what depression is. He felt extremely down one of the days, at his lowest point, and his little girl came over to him, grabbed his hand and said, "Daddy, you are very strong". He said that, if anybody ever needed to say that to him at that moment in time it was his daughter. She could see how much distress he was in over her sibling.

Another parent wrote that their 13 year old daughter was currently on the priority waiting list for the local CAMHS. They said the relief of seeing the words "priority waiting list" felt so good and hopeful that they rang CAMHS to find out what it actually meant. They were told they were looking at months on this waiting list for their young child, who had a moderate to severe mental health issue, because that is the criterion to get onto that waiting list. They asked how they ended up where they were. Their daughter had, over the past 12 months, become very withdrawn and slowly started to lose interest in pretty much everything. In the past three months they have found it very hard to get her to do anything or go anywhere. Simple tasks like getting up and getting dressed seem to be too much for her. As a family they tried very hard to encourage her to join in any social events in the community. However, this resulted in their home becoming a breeding ground for tears and anger, instead of the loving, warm home it was and should be.

Now, the daughter has absolutely no interest in anything. In the past few weeks, they came across letters that she wrote, with words like "I want to say goodbye", "It's never going to change", "I am hopeless", "I don't want to do this anymore", "I feel invisible", "Nobody likes me", "Nobody cares" and "There is no point in living anymore". The parent has now had to leave their job as they cannot be at work and not know if their daughter is safe and alive. They asked me to imagine what it would be like if my child had thoughts like that every single day, and to picture the waiting list and the prospect of sitting there for months. They feel constantly in a crisis, like they are not living any more but just trying to get through each minute, hour, day as best they can. It feels like all their lives are on hold and they are on constant watch with their daughter. They do not know if they or their daughter can get through this. She desperately needs help and support but she is on a priority waiting list. They hope they do not run out of time as they are scared.

Another person speaks of having personal experience of a daughter attempting suicide. She had collapsed at home and was going in and out of consciousness. The parent had to take her to the emergency department with no idea of whether she would survive. The parent held her hand, full of fear of what was to ahead. The daughter could have died that day. She needed help but so did the parent. She was not doing this for attention but to end her life. They were referred to CAMHS and had to wait two weeks for that appointment, two weeks that seemed endless. They had to have her on 24-hour watch for that time and went into crisis coping mode, just getting by, doing everything they possibly could for their daughter but not being able to even think straight. They were isolated and alone. They had to back away from any volunteer work within the community as they just could not focus or function. Looking back at that now, this parent still wonders how they got through that time. They cannot imagine how parents can live like that for months when they struggled for those two weeks.

I was contacted by two other parents recently. It breaks my heart to read these letters. I have had my own personal experience and I know how hard this is. One parent had a four year old, the other a five year old child, and both are having suicidal thoughts. They do not qualify for CAMHS because they are too young. I cannot imagine what it is like for the parents - it is so sad. There should not be a waiting time of months for families such as these. It is wrong and unfair. Mental health issues are so hard for a family to cope with and it is crazy that a vulnerable young person has to wait months to be seen. Their lives are put on hold as they go into survival mode. Our young people matter and they are our future. The situation needs to change as soon as possible.