Care required - Approach to mental health

It is every parent’s nightmare to witness the death of their child. It is particularly tragic when it is a life that has scarcely begun and is prematurely ended by the child’s own hand.

Dan Hogan, a 17-year-old from Donnybrook in Dublin, spent just 26 days in a mental health institution before killing himself. He had been put on a cocktail of anti-psychotic medication and hospitalised for his mental distress.

At the inquest into his death this week, his mother, Elaine Clear, read from his journal in which he described his time in hospital as ‘torture’.

Dan’s case echoes that of a 13-year-old girl who twice attempted suicide and was kept on a medical ward at Wexford General Hospital for weeks because nowhere more appropriate for her care can be found within the system.

Drugs and hospitalisation have their place but they should be a last resort and not a first response.

Young Dan and the Wexford girl were cherished but the response to their illness by our health services was crude and unenlightened. A more nuanced approach is needed.