Warning: this article contains multiple references to suicide. If you need help or support with thoughts of suicide, self-harm, depression or anxiety, you can contact The Samaritans on 116 123, Pieta House on 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444.

Grace was a “happy-go-lucky” child until her mother passed away when she was just 12 years old.

Since that day in September 2020, the young girl’s life has began to spiral.

Grace is now under 24/7 surveillance as a suicide risk in Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin.

On Lunchtime Live, her father Mick said she is unable to receive help from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) while already an inpatient elsewhere.

"She sits in Our Lady’s hospital now with 24/h supervision by two nurses and staff are constantly with her,” he said.

“There’s some type of policy that once you’re an inpatient, you can’t be seen by two different hospitals.

“She gets no supports, no psychology, and no therapy in there.

“They are there just to keep her alive and there’s no doubt about it they have done a great job at that.”

Beginning

Mick said it all began for Grace after the death of her mother.

“She had just started secondary school the week her mother died,” he said.

“Since that day Grace has changed from being a normal girl, a happy-go-lucky girl, into the self-destructing person she is now.”

Mick said his daughter began to seem standoffish and she wouldn’t clean her room before things became more serious.

“It escalated to self-harm,” he said.

“I started finding bloody tissues around and then there was a suicide attempt.

“I brought her to Pieta House who was very good at the time but Grace just kept spiraling down - it never really stopped for her.”

Her older sister Emma also noticed these changes.

“It was like something came over Grace, a dark spell came over her,” she said.

“She wanted to be alone and pushed the family further away. She’s a fantastic artist, but now she only paints in black.”

Self-harming

Emma also noticed the self-harming too.

“She hid it a lot at the start,” said Emma.

“She didn’t want anyone to know about it when she was just starting the cutting.

“Now she’s not really getting anywhere with the cutting and she’s progressing it; she doesn’t mind if you know she does it.

“She says ‘This is what I do, this is me now.’”

After regular suicide attempts, Grace, now aged 16, is an inpatient at Our Lady’s Children's Hospital Crumlin, according to her father.

Mick said he has taken his daughter home from the hospital on occasion but it doesn’t always end well.

“She plays the drums, so I let her go upstairs one day last week to play her drums and, unfortunately, she seriously self-harmed herself,” he said.

“I took her home for Sunday dinner with the family last weekend as it’s important for her to still feel part of the family.

“The hospital later rang me to say that she had cut with the knives even though I hadn’t let her upstairs.

“Once I was in the front room with one of the boys, she harmed herself in the kitchen.”

Facility

Mick said he gets calls from the hospital informing him Grace has made an attempt on her life “every second or third day now”.

He said she needed to be moved to a facility suited to her needs.

“What we need for Grace is a secure psychiatric unit with all of the supports that entails,” said Mick.

“She’s getting care in Our Lady’s Hospital but she’s not getting the supports; the psychology or the therapy - she’s getting nothing.

“She does an hour of school a day now, where if she was in a secure adult unit she would have psychology, family therapy, and she would also have proper schooling.”

If you have been affected by this issue you can call Samaritans on 116 123 at any time of the day, seven days a week. 

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Main Image: A woman looks out of a window. Image: Islandstock / Alamy Stock Photo