Funds plea for woman to get care in Britain

THE FAMILY of a Galway woman with severe personality disorder who is at risk of suicide has appealed to the Minister for Health to approve treatment for their daughter in Britain.

The young woman is currently in a Galway psychiatric hospital. She has been refused treatment under the E112 treatment abroad scheme, although her family says the treatment she needs is not available in Ireland.

The family believes the life of the woman, who has attempted suicide 14 times, is at imminent risk. She has been unwell for over six years and has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She began to self-harm at the age of 15 or 16 years and has had many admissions to hospital since.

She has spent 20 months of the last three years as an inpatient in various psychiatric wards in Dublin and Galway. Her last suicide attempt was earlier this month. She is now under 24-hour monitoring.

Her parents were advised earlier this year by healthcare professionals to look for treatment for her abroad. They identified the Acorn therapeutic community programme in England, which specialises in intensive dialectic behavioural therapy (DBT), as suitable.

The 10-bed unit offers an intensive residential programme to people who have borderline personality disorders. It costs €150,000 and is used by the NHS in Britain to treat the condition.

Intensive DBT programmes are not available in Ireland.

The woman has already been assessed at the centre and has been offered a place on the programme.

An application under the E112 scheme, which provides funding for treatments not available in Ireland, was made to the HSE in July. It included a letter from a consultant stating the treatment was necessary, but the application was refused on the grounds that it did not meet the criteria laid down. An appeal was also refused.

The HSE offered an hour a week of dialectic therapy service. According to the family, the therapist employed by the HSE can only offer one element of the specialised treatment. They say the treatment being offered is less than she received in the past two years, which did not work.

They added that the process of applying for the E112 scheme was highly traumatic and distressing for their daughter. They have attempted to sell their home to fund her treatment themselves and have appealed to Minister for Health James Reilly to intervene.

Senator Fidelma Healy Eames, who has raised the case in the Seanad, said it was heartbreaking for the family knowing she was being prevented from availing of the treatment she urgently needed. “There is a dearth of essential therapies, counsellors and psychologists to provide therapeutic care for those with a mental illness.” She said the parents were “trying to save their daughter’s life”.

Minister of State for Health Róisín Shortall, in response to Ms Healy Eames, said the application was not approved because a treatment plan was available locally.

“It is the consultant psychiatrist’s view that while the person in question could benefit from admission to the therapeutic service in the UK, there are treatment services available here from which the patient would benefit and these should be used in the first instance.”