Richard Hogan: How is it that people can leave our health services more troubled than before? 

The government has given over a billion euro to the HSE for mental health services, but will it be spent where it's really needed? 

Richard Hogan: The recent controversy about a doctor who was prescribing the wrong medication, giving ‘risky treatment’ and without the right care for patients in Kerry was shocking but unfortunately not too surprising.

In medicine, as in psychotherapy or any of the science medicines, rule one is, "First do no harm". (Primum non-nocere). This is an incredibly significant starting point for any clinician because you are working with people who are coming to you for care and guidance. They are vulnerable because they view the clinician as an expert and are, for the most part, willing to do what is recommended in that session. 

I often work with families who are really struggling to manage the issue that is present in the family. And many of those families have been through the system, either with Camhs or Tusla. So, I have been hearing first-hand, for many years now, the lived experience of families with our national services.