{"id":631925,"date":"2026-09-22T00:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631925\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T00:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:30:14","slug":"i-was-in-crisis-dublin-woman-did-not-want-to-be-alive-before-finding-support-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631925\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was in crisis\u2019: Dublin woman did not want \u2018to be alive\u2019 before finding support \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura*, a Dublin mother of one, was in such a state of mental distress two years ago that she did not want either herself or young daughter \u201cto be alive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both were struggling \u2013 her daughter with intense anxiety, emotional dysregulation and school avoidance, while Laura was very depressed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was in crisis and feeling I couldn\u2019t parent her. We ended up in a situation where she was in a mental health<\/a> crisis. She was [younger than 10] then and I had to bring her to an emergency department to get support,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said I should link in with Barnardos<\/a>. I didn\u2019t really know what Barnardos did. I felt, leaving there, even though we were both in crisis, there was no path, no definite person I could link in with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnardos, a charity working with vulnerable children and families, had a branch near Laura\u2019s daughter\u2019s school. <\/p>\n

\u201cI went and knocked on the door and kind of said, \u2018I need help. Can you help me? What do you do here?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Laura and her daughter have since benefited from intensive, trauma-informed counselling and supports provided by the charity, including weekly sessions \u2013 separately and together. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that moment I really felt somebody had our backs. It wasn\u2019t just the meetings, it was the project worker, the advocacy with other services, the camps and activities for [my daughter],\u201d Laura says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was empathy, compassion, non-judgemental support, and we learned how to talk about our emotions and calm them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother and daughter are among more than 34,000 children and adults who benefited from the charity\u2019s trauma-informed methods last year.<\/p>\n

Trauma-informed practices recognise the physiological impact trauma has on children\u2019s brains. The impacts, which may arise from chronic exposure to toxic stress \u2013 such as domestic violence, mental ill-health, homelessness, poverty, addiction, crime \u2013 can lead to persistent feelings of being unsafe. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe neurological impact of toxic stress means in a young child that the emotional side of their brain is overdeveloped, rather than the cognitive and problem-solving side of their brain,\u201d says Stephanie Whyte, Barnardos\u2019 director of services. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that means for adults [who grew up with toxic stress], their problem-solving skills are diminished or less developed. Our staff have an understanding that the crisis in many of the adults we see is linked to how their brain has developed, and in many cases is affecting their children too.\u201d<\/p>\n

New research from the charity, published on Tuesday, draws on data gathered in 2024 and last year from questionnaires completed by 1,262 children and parents before and after engaging with Barnardos. <\/p>\n

Researchers found 64 per cent of the children had \u201chigh\u201d or \u201cvery high\u201d emotional, social and behavioural difficulties. Parents and children were also experiencing more relationship challenges than the national norm.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Anxiety \u2018most prevalent mental health difficulty\u2019 for secondary school studentsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Following intensive support, typically of about 18 months\u2019 duration, \u201cchildren\u2019s wellbeing had significantly improved\u201d. <\/p>\n

There were noted reductions in children\u2019s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties; increases in pro-social strengths, and they were \u201cexperiencing significantly less distress and social impairment in their day-to-day lives\u201d, says the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted now to be able to say, what we knew anecdotally, we have measured this and we know it works,\u201d says Whyte. <\/p>\n

For Laura and her daughter, Barnardos has been life-changing and life-saving. Where her daughter previously felt, in her words, \u201cMummy was sad all the time, I didn\u2019t feel safe in the house and didn\u2019t feel safe with Mummy\u201d, she is now confident and sociable, and the two have a strong relationship. <\/p>\n

*Laura\u2019s name was changed to preserve her family\u2019s identity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laura*, a Dublin mother of one, was in such a state of mental distress two years ago that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[132046,105521,103,61,60,410],"class_list":["post-631925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-barnardos","tag-child-anxiety","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631925","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=631925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}