The Health Service Executive has confirmed it had made a psychiatrist available to assess a 16-year-old suicidal autistic girl after she left an emergency department in a highly distressed state when she was not seen for over five hours by medical staff on Wednesday night.
The HSE issued a statement confirming a senior psychiatrist had contacted the girl's mother on Thursday to discuss a number of assessment options. It said there would be a psychiatrist available at Cork University Hospital throughout the day to assess the girl.
The HSE statement came in the wake of the woman contacting the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's Red FM to highlight her predicament after the girl tried to take her own life on Wednesday night.
“This is my daughter . . . in the waiting room in A&E. She is autistic, suicidal and obviously distressed. She was left for five hours, bawling crying on the floor,” said the girl’s mother in an email to the radio show.
“The staff had no bed to give her, no comfort, not even as much as a glass of water. When other patients started to make a fuss, they gave her a trolley. By this time, my daughter was so distressed she was hysterical.
“She told the consulting doctor several times if we left she will kill herself. Their advice - take her home. I’m now en route home with my daughter, crying inconsolably in the back seat of the car. We left A&E with her bawling crying and everyone staring at us with concern.”
The woman, who asked for her details not to be released, said there was no help available for her daughter who has been self-harming.
The HSE said it will provide all necessary medical interventions and support required following the assessment by the senior psychiatrist from the HSE’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team.
It also said an inpatient child and adolescent facility in Cork can be accessed if deemed clinically necessary.
