Two Northern Irish women have called for increased investment into mental health services and described the impact that long delays and waiting lists have had on them.
Amber, 20, and Bobbie, 26, have both been involved with mental health services since they were children and have experienced difficulties over the years which they believe have caused further issues down the line that may not have developed if they received support sooner.
They have spoken to Belfast Live in order to highlight their concerns regarding the mental health services in Northern Ireland believing that urgent action is needed in order to save people's lives.
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Amber first became involved with the services when she was a child while also witnessing the effects a lack of mental health support can have as she saw her late father struggle with schizophrenia and addiction.
Following his passing when she was 10, she says that she struggled with the loss for a long time and that she was told she would get counselling and help for her grief, this never took place and over the years began struggling with anxiety and depression.
When Amber was 16 she was diagnosed with a brain tumour which not only hurt her physical health but her mental health too, as she has had to go through a number of surgeries and try and recover from the trauma of her injury.
She said that while the support she received during her cancer treatment was incredible, she believes that more could have been done to help her mental health which had deteriorated further during that time.
Amber said: "When I was a child it was hard to understand the struggles that my dad was going through with his mental health and addiction, but looking back on it now I can see that the same issues still persist within our services.
"My dad had been desperate to get some help but it seemed to be going nowhere and as a result things just got harder and harder for him.
"I have experienced the same difficulties with the mental health services with delays for counselling and treatment and am still waiting on support that I was promised when I was 13.
"When I discovered I was diagnosed with a brain tumour, it came as a huge shock as I had been told there were no issues despite having migraines for a number of months.
"Going through the treatment was very difficult and while the care I received from the NHS for my cancer was incredible and I wouldn't be alive today without it, I felt that more could have been done to support me mentally, as my mental health sort of took a back seat for a while even though I was struggling.
"I have managed to have some sessions with various counsellors but none of it was focused enough to really deal with the problems that I am having and a lot of the time it feels like you are palmed off with drugs and that nobody is ever really there when you need them."
Bobbie, 26, has also been involved with mental health services since she was a child due to her ADHD. She says that while she had problems with this when she was younger, it was not until her late teens and early twenties where she began to have serious difficulties with her mental health.
She says that due to not being able to get support and treatment when social services were involved with her son led her to lose custody of him and since then her mental health has got worse and seen her admitted to hospital on a number of occasions.
Bobbie said: "When social services got involved with my son I was told that I had six months to complete a mental health assessment but no matter how hard I tried to do it, it kept getting delayed or stopped.
"This alongside issues with domestic violence caused me to lose custody of him and since then I have not been able to see him for three years.
"Following this my mental health just got worse and worse and I ended up being admitted to PICU and a number of mental health wards. The PICU was faultless, but on the wards it felt like a different planet and they were just not the right place to get help, I felt worse after leaving it due to everything that was going on.
"Since then I have done all that I can to keep myself from going back there, but there is just not the support available within the community and certain doctors are unable to give you the support they need because they don't have the right staff at their practice.
"I know too many people who have taken their own lives because they couldn't get seeing someone in time, or when they looked for help they were told that it could be over a week before someone sees you.
"Something needs to be done to make sure that we have mental health services that actually work for people, because not enough is being done at the moment and there are too many people at a crisis point."
Amber and Bobbie have said that more investment is needed into the Northern Irish mental health services in order to ensure that people are able to get the help that they need in difficult times.
Amber continued: "There needs to be more options and treatments available for people in order to help their mental health recovery. Talking to a counsellor can only do so much and it can feel like you are just repeating yourself over and over again without actually addressing the root causes.
"Delays in receiving support also have a huge impact on people and just cause their issues to get worse and things will only continue to go this way unless there are changes and investment in our mental health services."
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