Bressie gives powerful speech about the ‘epidemic of this generation’ to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children

Niall Breslin today addressed the Joint Committee on Health and Children about mental health and wellbeing at a meeting of the Oireachtas. Here is his opening statement

I would like to sincerely extend my gratitude for the opportunity to address the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children in relation to a subject that I am profoundly and unreservedly passionate about; the mental and emotional well-being of the youth of this country and how we can work together to build a more supportive and sustainable future for our children and teenagers.

My passion is built upon personal experience whereas a teenager I simply did not have the capacity to cope with an utterly dominant anxiety disorder that seemed hell bent on robbing me of my character and personality at every available opportunity. Crippling insomnia, harrowing panic attacks and incomprehensible self-harm dictated my life, all disguised behind a mask of normality that polarised the general lazy stereotype or label we associate with those with a mental health illness.

The quiet guy in the corner who has no friends, the guy who keeps himself to himself. I was none of these things, yet I continuously failed to comprehend why I couldn’t breathe some nights, or why my chest constantly felt as if a cavity concrete block was placed upon it, while that perpetual ruthless nausea became an all too common part of my life.

Some days I would sit in my classroom on the verge of fainting as I hyperventilated and fought for air while my teachers continued to teach the class, oblivious to the fact that one of their students was in the midst of a living nightmare. I spent so many of my school days praying that some of our teachers may talk about this, or just say something so I didn’t feel so isolated and terrified. They never did.

My greatest support and emotional scaffolding was the fact that I came from a loving, stable and caring family and I used to think what could have happened if I didn’t have this, like so many others out there. I am not really sure I want to contemplate that.

Over many years my anxiety disorder manipulated and sabotaged many careers and relationships, like it tends to do, but I count myself lucky that I always had that inner resilience to defy its grasps and after many years of hostility and conflict with my mind, I have learned to control, respect and even strengthen its capacity to cope, done through dedication and sacrifice and a complete desire to regain control over an illness that could have been limited or perhaps prevented if I received effective and required education and knowledge around what it actually was. It was let grow into a monster, a monster that fed on silence, fear and lack of understanding.

So why am I addressing this committee today? The reality is our youth, the future of this country need urgent help. They are exposed to too much, so much is expected from them, and both the external and internal pressures they are being asked to cope with are simply not viable, and the result is the great epidemic of this generation.

Agonising suicide rates, disturbingly high anxiety and depression rates, self-harm, eating disorders, OCD, the list goes on…We simply cannot ignore this anymore. We have to be honest and ask ourselves, truly are we doing enough?

It’s a transitional period in this country, regarding the dialogue around mental health and emotional well-being. The draconian stigma that has ravaged families throughout Ireland for generations is slowly eroding. The mass media are engaging with the conversation while handfuls of schools and organisations are carrying the message to a wider audience, and no doubt saving countless lives while doing so. We have gradually commenced normalising the conversation surrounding our mental health and this must be promoted, nurtured and celebrated at every level.

However, I truly wish I could stand up here and suggest that it’s an entirely positive situation. I am not one for blurting out statistics for I feel they often lack substance and they don’t tend to be evident in the stories I hear every single day on my web site alustforlife.com, in the countless schools and workplaces that I have addressed, and from the literally thousands of people that have e mailed me over the past few months with regard to their mental health challenges.

In order for us to progress in this regard, everyone in this room has to be painfully honest with each other and accept that our mental health services and systems are not even close to being adequate or resourced for the demand and requirement that is put upon them. The people within the mental health services do trojan work with the resources available to them, but their hands are unfortunaely tied in too many situations. This is not a blame game or headhunt, but in order for us to build an effective long term strategy we have to park the egos, politics and economics and put human beings first. We have some incredibly gifted people in this country when it comes to education, mental health and psychology, so it’s a matter of joining the dots, empowering, and building something together that can give our youth the support they require to survive in this often chaotic world.

I have witnessed first-hand some of the powerful work schools, students and charity and awareness organisations are doing up and down this country with little or no resources and this is so uplifting to observe, but the reality is it’s not systematic and certainly not across the board. As politicians, you are paid by the tax payer to cater for the needs of the people, and in this regard a lot of work is required.

I have heard horror stories regarding the child and adolescent mental health services (camhs) that are almost too distressing to share on this platform. Families totally helpless, while some families have to drive hundreds of miles and wait months to see a health care professional. If it were any of your children I hope you can see how utterly unacceptable this is.

Although I am not a health care professional, I don’t think you need to be to see some of the gaping holes in logic when it comes to our strategy around mental health. I feel whatever solution is reached, it will be done together as we all aim to achieve the same thing.

What would I like to see being explored? I feel we got to observe this in two ways.

We have got to address primary preventative measures that can allow people deal with their mental health issues at an infancy stage, build mental fitness and resilence and also educate teachers and students in recognising how the mind, although can we weakened, can also be strenghtened.

How can this be done?

1. Rather than over rely on medical models, create easy access to talk therapies and counselling service at a community level. The idea of a teenager having to be driven half way across the country after waiting two months for a referral is completely unacceptable. A two tier system when it comes to mental health simply doesn’t work. Access needs to be immediate and without charge for every child and teenager in this country. Help in many cases cannot wait and this should not be just left to voluntary organsiations and charities which up to now have been the the biggest support structure for many families. Reach out to those communities torn apart from suicide, and support them in rebuilding their communities, by improving both individual and collective resilience by effective and focused mental health education programmes. Some of these points have also been echoed by recommendations made by the childrens mental health coalition report chaired by mental health reform on how youth services can be improved across Ireland.
2. Let’s explore the best solutions for implementing mental health and well-being into our education curriculum. Positive psychology programmes, mindfulness programmes, stress management programmes have countless evidence and researches illustrating their benefit to the well-being of teachers and students, but also how they can facilitate and improve learning conditions, which therefore begs the question, why arent they being systematcially implemented in our schools This is no doubt complex, but as a nation we have never shied away from progressive and brave social enterprises. Once the will and vision exists this can be done. It requires leadership and the empowerment of our educators and our students. It also involves a much more integrated approach between our health and education departments, which could further facilitate developing relationships between health care professionals and our educators. We also have to recognise how our youth communicate and interact. Building a sustainable, safe and engaging educational online platform that can compliment and support our current education system, although a challenge, must be explored. Our country is the technological capital of Europe, so access to expertise surely is not an obstacle.
3. Increase funding and support to those charities and awareness organisations that have long been at the backbone of emotional support for the families and individuals affected by mental health illness and suicide. They are well respected and have a willing and engaged audience that trust and rely on their services. Long before people like me were having conversations like this in front of an Oireachtas committee, these organisations have been supporting communities and families throughout Ireland. They have a unique connection with many people, but often struggle for resources especially over recent years. Remember that the recession we just faced was far more than an economic one, it was a human recession, where many families and individuals went through some incredibly dark days, and in many cases it was these organisations that held them up, when everything else was trying to knock them down.

We also have to address our mental health system when it comes to secondary issues and more serious mental health situations.

– Over the past few months I have received a massive amount of communication from families of loved ones attempting to access our mental health services and I would not be doing them justice if I said it made for pretty reading. This, I understand is highly complex and sensitive but it’s a conversation that has to be had.

– Only this month did I receive the deeply upsetting news that a young man Caolite , who was a family member of a friend of mine was found dead in the River Liffey. He took his own life after enduring years of unexplainable pain. Many times his family tried to access help but they were refused because this young man was consuming alcohol and told he couldn’t be helped because of his drinking, which was intrinsically linked to his mental health illness. In a country that celebrates and promotes alcohol throughout its culture, it’s simply not acceptable that someone is turned away from help on account of it. The family were even advised to take a barring order out which no doubt would have been broken, resulting in criminalising this young man for being mentally unwell. Hardly, something any mother wants to do to their own vulnerable child.

His situation was complicated and seemed highly subjective to the family involved. Upon posting his story on my web site, It became immediately evident that this story was not uncommon throughout Ireland. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers all explaining similar, painful and heart wrenching stories. The details of this story are slowly going to emerge over the coming months, but this family don’t want to play the blame game, or point fingers, they simply want change. They do not want to see any more families have to endure what they have had to, and will no doubt have to for the rest of their lives.

No mother should ever feel this helpless, and they deserved so much more, Caolite, an intelligent, witty young man, deserved so much more. He was anyone’s brother.

We need to ask hard questions. Those stories are too common. So many people wanted to help this young man, but their hands were tied by bureaucracy, vague legalities and lack of resource and they should never be put in that position.

This is not a quick fix, but in order to progress we must first accept that change is needed. Irish people, in some cases, have shown to be revolutionary when it comes to social innovation and I hope we continue to be in the future. We have proven that negative cultural attitudes can be transformed, and although we can sometimes be cautious of change, we never let it dictate our collective actions. We are built upon unique character and personality and we punch well above our weight internationally.

We can become world leaders when it comes to our mental health strategies going forward. Let’s work together on this. This is only the start of a conversation and it is important that the next Health Committee prioritises mental health for young people as a key issue for its future Work Programme, and I appeal to you , to use your full influence, passion and desire to work together with us all, to tackle and overcome the issues we face, and help build a more reslient society, a new Ireland.

Thank you.