Ms Neil Moore Ryan:

I will address the voice of lived experience, which is the third area we wish to highlight. As we have seen in the news this year, there are, unfortunately, far too many people in this country who have poor things to say about CAMHS, a place that should be a safe haven for vulnerable young people and children. With this Oireachtas joint committee debate being on the topic of CAMHS and dual diagnosis, which are both pressing issues, particularly currently, I wanted to share my own experiences because I am the expert in my own experience.

I am a 23-year-old autistic woman who was engaged with a CAMHS service from around September 2017 to July 2018. I struggled with self-harm and suicidal ideation and found the CAMHS team was a little flippant with their discussion of it. I very much felt that the members of the team did not take it seriously and thought it was just for attention, an attitude I do not feel is appropriate for people in their position to have. The doctors put me on Prozac, which I was apprehensive about as I had not been on medication and did not want to be on it. However, they made me feel as though they could not engage with me and they would not do the work I wanted if I did not go on it. They raised my dose often. In preparing for this committee meeting today, I spoke with other people who have accessed CAMHS services. Overmedication was a common issue among those people. I spoke to people in preparing for today because every person is unique and every person deserves the best mental healthcare that they need, when they need it.

My voice is important here today because we are not just statistics. There are so many children and young people on waiting lists that I think it can become easy for politicians or service providers to forget that each of the 4,400 children and young people waiting are members of our families, friend groups, communities, schools, sports teams and neighbourhoods. If we are at the point of accessing or trying to access CAMHS, we have already gone through a number of other steps to even get to the point of being on a waiting list. Imagine the hurt it causes to then be turned away because you also have autism, or an intellectual disability, or a substance misuse issue.

I thank the committee for inviting Mental Health Reform to speak. I also thank the people who spoke to me about their experiences. Ms Grogan and I very much look forward to this evening's conversations. We are grateful to the committee for examining this important topic.