Student ‘turned away’ by UCC health centre after suicide attempt

A UCC student has claimed that the college’s health centre turned them away after they had presented following a suicide attempt.

The student has claimed they did not meet with anyone at the centre or receive any appointment to meet with a professional after they informed reception that they had attempted suicide.

The anonymous student’s account of their experience was published yesterday evening by UCC Express, the student-run campus newspaper. The email’s author had requested that the Express run the letter as soon as possible.

In the correspondence, the student recounts how they have crippling anxiety, details their suicide attempt, and outlines what happened after they sought help.

“I went to the UCC Health Centre and told the person behind the desk I needed to see a doctor,” the letter from the student read.

“I told the person I had tried to kill myself and nothing had changed with the failed attempt. Shortly thereafter, I walked out the door and on to College Road not with an appointment, not with having seen a counsellor but with nothing.

“There were no appointments, no emergency appointments and the person could do nothing for me but direct me to the Mercy A&E.

“I’ve used UCC services before, the DSS [Disability Support Service] in particular being helpful, but that day there was no one for me. I walked home and went to bed.

“I have crippling anxiety. That’s not self-declared (I can show you my doctor’s note), that’s not exaggerated:

“Weeks would go by when I couldn’t leave my bed; couldn’t leave my room; lecturers were missed, food went uneaten, friends were lost.

“This is the part of the narrative where I would say ‘but then X happened’ or ‘I did X’ and say it got better, but it hasn’t. Every day I wake up disappointed that I didn’t somehow die in my sleep.

“I stare at Facebook, consider messaging someone to meet up but decide against it, convinced they’re not really my friends but just humour me out of politeness or pity.

“Same response typically if someone messages me. And I know that’s not necessarily true, and that makes it worse, that makes it a constant internal battle of weighing and measuring my perceived worth to friends and family against the effect it would have if I didn’t exist.

“Life doesn’t get better but it does get bearable, it does have its good moments. The rhetoric that goes around this time of year, the advice given to people going through hard times, that you may be at the start of the one-way journey that leads to happiness and brightness.

“That may seem like the best thing to say to someone who’s in the place I was that day I walked into the health centre, but it served only to make me feel more isolated from everyone else. I mean, how long is that fucking road because it has been years in the darkness. So this is to you who feels like it’ll never get better: It will.

“It will get better, but it won’t go away. To say otherwise would be patronising. If you felt great yesterday but crap today you’re not alone in the dark, we’re all just making it up as we go along.”

Brian Conmy, the editor of the UCC Express, said that the campus newspaper had passed on the number of counselling services to the student.

UCC statement

“It is a matter of real concern that this student describes a situation where they felt we weren’t there for him/her when they presented to the department, and that he/she describes that no alternative immediate help was arranged for him/her,” said Michael Byrne, director of Student Health and Wellbeing in UCC.

“I would urge the student involved to continue to seek help, either with us here in UCC, through his/her own doctor or to use the immediate advice line available from Pieta House or the Samaritans in times of crisis or when the other services are not available.

“The Student Health Department and Student Counselling and Development Department are deeply committed to supporting our students, especially at times of distress. There is an active policy of immediate and same day support for students who present to the services in-extremis, with a range of healthcare professionals, including nurses, counsellors and doctors on duty to support our students, with a consultant psychiatry service available on two days per week in term-time.”

Brian Conmy, editor of the UCC Express, said the student’s email was received by a member of the newspaper’s design team yesterday morning. The email requested that it be published as soon as possible.

Samaritans can be called on a 24hr free-call number, 116 123, and Pieta House Cork can be reached on 021-434 1400. Students can email the UCC’s counselling service on [e-mail].