A young woman has opened up about her "distressing" experience with Ireland's mental health services.

Skerries native Lauren McCool (19) says she presented herself to Beaumont Hospital last week with ill mental health but was sent home and told to "go to the gym".

"I was admitted to Beaumont as I was feeling suicidal. After four hours of talking with different nurses and doctors and getting bloods done, I had an evaluation done with a psychiatrist, I told her I wanted to die and that I had a plan," Lauren told Independent.ie.

"The psychiatrist told me that I should go home and 'go to the gym' or 'see friends'.

"I begged her to keep me in hospital as I didn’t feel safe, I asked her what the hospitals policy is if I tell her I’m going home and I’m going to attempt suicide- she told me that all they can do is ‘hope that I don’t attempt it’."

While Laura had previous sought help from mental health services like Jigsaw and Pieta House, she says it was the first time she went to the hospital for help.

"I hadn't dealt with Beaumont’s mental health services before, it was a really big step for me and I really did think that the situation would have been handled much differently," she said.

"All I wanted was to be kept in and given help. I could barely look at the psychiatrist when she told me that I’d be going home."

Laura said she asked the psychiatrist to keep her admitted, but was sent home instead.

"I just cried and cried and begged her to keep me in, but she just said there was nothing more she could do. It was very distressing."

After returning home from the hospital, Lauren sought help with a private counsellor- but she wanted to share her story with others.

Taking to social media, her story received over 11,000 likes with many young Irish people coming forward with similar stories.

The young woman also received messages of hate on the online platform, but Lauren doesn’t regret speaking out.

"I kind of just typed out the tweet thread in anger and frustration, I’d never shared my own mental health experienced publicly before but I’m so happy I did," Lauren said.

"As I started receiving messages I was so overwhelmed, I got some nasty messages saying I was looking for attention. They made me question everything, but the good messages and tweets definitely outweighed the bad.

"I thought about deleting the tweet as I was worried about what people in my town would think but as people started sharing their own stories of mental health with me and telling me that they were so happy someone finally spoke out, I realised that I was helping people and that I shouldn’t be ashamed of going through this."

A spokesperson for Beaumont Hospital referred Independent.ie to the HSE for comment.

A spokesperson for the HSE said they "cannot comment on individual cases".

If you or anyone you know needs support call Samaritans on freephone 116 123, text 087 260 9090 (standard text rates apply) or email jo@samaritans.ie

Online Editors