A NEWBRIDGE woman bereaved earlier this year by her son\u2019s suicide, has said she\u2019s \u201cdisgusted\u201d with the attitude of the Junior Minister for Mental Health Mary Butler, as she pursues of including \u2018dual diagnosis\u2019 into the Mental Health Act.<\/p>\n
Noeleen Eustace lost her only son Kelvin Brennan (26) on 23 May, after his lifelong struggle with Asperger\u2019s Syndrome, and only three days after he successfully completed a Level 5 qualification in Community Health and Social Care at Newbridge Community College.<\/p>\n
Noeleen had noticed behavioural differences in Kelvin as young as 18 month and \u201cwas eight years going to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) back and forth\u201d, until he was 13 when he first told his mother that he wanted to kill himself.<\/p>\n
She went to her GP, and he recommended waiting for CAMHS, but instead Noeleen pursued a private consultation in Temple Street where Kelvin\u2019s diagnosis was first made.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went back to CAMHS after that (diagnosis) and do you know what they said to me? \u2018We though it might be that\u2019 on a one-line report,\u201d said Noeleen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe private report (from Temple Street) was 18 pages long!<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what people are dealing with for trying to get \u2018dual diagnosis\u2019 be put into the Mental Health Act.\u201d Dual diagnosis refers to having a combination of a mental health two disorder and a substance misorder at the same time. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Senate last week for the debate Mary Butler the TD from Waterford who is the junior Minister with responsibility for mental health, and she said it\u2019s not going in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is dual diagnosis? She asked that twice \u2013 flippantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, only in June she was asked to resign for saying that Autism and ADHD was a trend!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Not unlike a certain position being held across the other side of the Atlantic, posited the Kildare Nationalist.<\/p>\n
\u201cA hundred per cent like RFK Jnr and Trump with his Tylenol!\u201d Noeleen agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived with autism for 26 years and it\u2019s awful without an early diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cA prime example is Adam Harris (brother of T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris) from \u2018As I Am\u2019 who got an early diagnosis and is thriving.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Kelvin could\u2019ve been as good as that if he got an early diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll research will tell you that early diagnosis intervention will really help these young people to do very well in the world, otherwise they\u2019ll end up on one of three different paths \u2013 the criminal justice system, substance abuse, or dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony Atwood\u2019s book \u2018The Complete Guide to Asperger\u2019s\u2019 will tell you that.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum is reporting an increase of admissions from people on the spectrum, and we have a junior minister saying, \u2018what is Asperger\u2019s?\u2019 … it\u2019s and insult, and I\u2019m disgusted with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are self-medicating to get through. It\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinister Butler is responsible for doubling the time of Electric Shock Treatment (EST) without the assessment of a psychiatrist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going backwards, and that is scary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asked about what is driving her in this campaign<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to get my son back, and I\u2019m not doing it for money, but I\u2019m looking for \u2018dual diagnosis\u2019 recognition, and Sinn Fein are the only party pursuing this.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot one local representative in Newbridge has contacted me, not one,\u201d she said. \u201cSomething\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
A petition has been created by Noeleen, which can be found on https:\/\/my.uplift.ie\/petitions\/kelvins-law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NEWBRIDGE woman bereaved earlier this year by her son\u2019s suicide, has said she\u2019s \u201cdisgusted\u201d with the attitude…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-54640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}