'I'm left to rot in my room after HSE stopped psychologist home-visits'

Louise Walsh

A sufferer of agoraphobia claims she is being left ‘in her room to rot,’ by mental health services after home-visits by a psychologist were stopped.

Linda Perry – whose dream is to meet X-Factor’s Simon Cowell - says her husband Liam is now working any overtime he can to afford her help in the costly private sector.

The 30 year old woman from Gandon Court in Athboy, says she often spends days holed up in her bedroom and relies on anxiety medication Xanax if she has to leave the house.
Linda had been receiving home visits from a psychologist for a few months from which she felt, she was benefitting, but unfortunately these appointments were stopped.

She said: “My psychologist just stopped visiting without an explanation about a year ago. I was only told four months ago that it was because of the lack of resources.
“The visiting psychologist was giving me little challenges to do each week which

I was mastering but now I’m back to square one.
“No-one had the decency to send a letter or call to explain why these appointments were suddenly stopped.
“I emailed the Minister for Health Simon Harris about five months ago about the situation and only received a reply earlier this month.”

The letter stated that reports from various mental health professionals who worked with Linda agreed it would be ‘ineffective’ and an’unethical mode of treatment’ to provide more home visits.
Linda began getting panic attacks at 15 years old but managed to overcome them and worked until 2011 when the panic attacks returned after she witnessed two men breaking into cars outside her house.

The attacks worsened and Linda became unable to leave her home, sometimes even her bedroom. “When my husband is at work, it’s a fight to leave my room. I get up to feed our pets but run back to the room straight away and spend all day in bed.”
Linda says she just wants help to get better so she can go out with her husband and visit her nieces and nephews without any medication.
“I long for the day I can go and do things with my husband, like just go to the cinema without the use of Xanax, which I need to take for any appointments or even family visits.”

In 2011 just before getting ill, Linda auditioned for the X-Factor in Birmingham and would love one day to meet Simon Cowell.
“He’s my idol. I got through to the second stages of X-Factor but nerves got the better of me. The panic attacks occurred soon after.”

Feeling that the public sector has failed her, Linda is now arranging to see a psychiatrist privately - at a cost of €200 a session.
“My husband Liam is having to work overtime to afford the appointment. I feel so bad that he is doing this for me.
“In my experience, the health sector is a joke to access. Every time I had an appointment, I saw a different doctor. What’s the point of that? You have to go through your whole life story again and are just told I’ll see you again in four months.

“The Mental Health services in Trim have offered me out-patients care but only if I visit without the Xanax whereas the private sector said I can take Xanax for appointments while they assess me.”
“I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m speaking out so that something might be done.

“How many lives have to be lost because of mental health issues before more help is given to those who need it. I’m lucky I have a loving husband to lean on – how many people don’t have that support?”

A statement from the HSE said: “It is the policy of the HSE not to comment on individual cases. We would advise anybody seeking personal information in respect to Health Services to contact their Local Health Manager.”