Mental Health ward a ‘Living hell’ for Limerick city family

A FATHER-of-four has spoken of his devastation that his eldest daughter has been stuck on a hospital bed in a mental health ward almost a year.​

The Moyross man – who asked not to be identified – has seen his first-born, who is now 20 years old, spiral into a severe depression, and has said she is lying in bed in unit 5b at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) for at least “16 hours a day”.

“It’d nearly be better off if she was in prison,” said the exasperated parent.

He desperately wants to get his daughter into a Rehab Care facility, but his attempts have so far floundered because of the lack of an occupational therapist.

This came despite his best efforts to source one independently of the HSE.

The father – who also has three kids under the age of 10 – is being supported by Corpus Christi school principal Tiernan O’Neill, who said: “There’s just been so many broken promises”.

“It’s a shocking indictment on our system that this is how we treat the most vulnerable in society,” he added.

The young woman had originally been admitted to UHL in August last, and her father had made daily visits to the Dooradoyle hospital.

However, due to the onset of Covid-19, he has not been able to be in the same room as her.

”She’s not been off the ward in seven weeks. She’s getting very frustrated. Anger is building up inside of her. She went from being a non-smoker to smoking 25 cigarettes a day. Even the nurses have noticed it as well, a change in her,” the man added.

He also feels during the current pandemic, his daughter is taking up a much-needed hospital bed needlessly.

And although his daughter has tested negative for coronavirus, he’s worried she could still catch the deadly condition as she’s sharing the ward with close to 30 people.

For its part, an HSE spokesperson said there’s an “active management plan” in place on that ward in relation to Covid-19.

”This is under constant review and we are working with our partners in Public Health to ensure a safe environment for our service users and staff,” they added.

All the father can do at present is see his daughter behind a pane of glass, and drop items of her through the window.

“She’s only 20, and she’s seeing stuff in there that no 20-year-old should see,” he said, “It’s a real strain on our every day life that I could do without. It’s something that’a always in the back of my mind.”

If his daughter did get her longed for move to a step-down facility, he said it would allow her something of a routine.

“She’d need to be up each morning and make her own breakfast, do her own washing, give a bit of structure to her day. At the moment, it’s 16 hours a day she’s spending in bed. Every time she rings me or Facetimes me, she’s lying in bed. It’s tough,” he added.

“She’s a happy-go-lucky kid. She just needs one tiny bit of support. From the age of 16, no matter who she’s been to, she’s just fallen through the cracks. Her case has been passed to someone else,” the father concluded.

Mr O’Neill said: “She is from an incredibly decent hard-working family, and they’ve been going through a living hell.”​

The HSE said it cannot comment on individual cases.