Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State for attending. Senator White referred to money and resources. I am speaking from personal experience. A 24 year old approached me last weekend and said, "I wish I had money so that I can get my boyfriend treatment". She did not want money not to go out, travel or buy clothes. No 24 year old should have to say that. I will speak about a person close to me and her direct engagement with the health services. I commend Sosad Ireland because its voluntary contributions and services have kept this person alive. Senator Keane mentioned a buddy system. Such a system is inadequate. In my case, one 24 year old is supporting another 24 year old. The HSE need to provide that service; a young person should not to have to rely on herself to do that.

The boyfriend of the person to whom I refer is depressed and every day he battles to stay alive because he wants to die. That is the unfortunate reality. As an elected representative, I do not want to talk about statistics or rehearse the issues raised by previous speakers. I will read into the record a written statement by this girl about her boyfriend and her experience of public services. It states:

I may not know all the statistics but I know depression and all the other forms it takes. I see depression every day. I see the man I love wake up every day in tears wanting to die, wanting to get away from the unbearable pain. I see his mental health deteriorate. I see his physical health deteriorate. I tell this 24 year old man that things will get better. I ask him to just hold on, one more day, one more week. I tell him that the help he needs will eventually come, that the doctors do care.

He has suffered from depression and anxiety for years and years. He has moved from doctor to doctor seeking help, each one pawning him off on another. Medication for depression and anxiety disorders is supposedly a short-term answer, yet medication is the only consistent treatment that he has gotten in four years. His psychiatrist is nothing but dismissive. When he tells his psychiatrist that he still feels suicidal on the pills, his psychiatrist does not reassess the situation; he just ups his dosage, up, up and up until it can't go any higher.

This man that I love had a breakdown seven months ago. There is no other way to describe someone collapsing so severely in themselves mentally and physically. After this breakdown, his first port of call was to his GP where he was told that everyone gets a little down sometimes. The dosage of his medication was upped and, within ten minutes, he was out the door. The sad reality is that even now when we know all about mental illness and suicide, people are still walking into their GP telling them that they're feeling suicidal and, within ten minutes, that person who has high chance of killing themselves is walking out the door with a prescription stopping them from taking that step.

Fortunately, he changed doctors and now he has a very caring, compassionate and proactive GP. Since his breakdown, he has seen his psychiatrist four times. He was referred to a psychologist and occupational therapist also and has seen her twice. This is a man waking up every day wanting to die, a man working out a suicide plan just waiting on the day to come when he will have to kill himself, a man pleading for help telling doctor after doctor that he's so depressed, that he wants help, that he wants to get better, that he doesn't want to die but the pain is so bad that it seems like the only way out.

In many suicide debates in this country, we hear about the people that have taken their lives and that didn't ask for help. Well here is a man that is pleading for help, proper help, not to be packed out the door with more medication that won't change his life. Here's a man that wants to be able to live his life like his friends, wants to be able to travel, to be able to get out of bed in the mornings and to be fit to work, a man who just wants to live his life and not feel like he is a burden to his doctors, to the very people who are supposed to be helping him. To them, he is a 15-minute appointment, 45 minutes if he's lucky.

I want my boyfriend to get the help he deserves so that he can be the amazing, talented and happy person I know he can be. I want us to be able to wake up and know that instead of having to reassure the man I love that adequate help will eventually come that we can get up and live a day with normal worries about money, the price of petrol, the amount of tax we are paying. I would trade anyone for their money debts if they could help him get better. I want to wake up in the mornings not having to worry if I'm going to call from someone to say that he's dead. I want to be able to wake up and know that I won't have to find his body somewhere.

That is her story and I want everyone to remember that. I would like the Minister of State to take it away with her.