“I want to be a pain in the ass,” laughed Pieta House founder, Joan Freeman, when speaking to SHEmazing! about her recent appointment as senator to the Seanad.

Reflecting on her decision to push for legislation which would make it illegal for children to be admitted into adult psychiatric units in Ireland, the founder of Ireland’s only free therapeutic service insisted that she refuses to watch the youth of our nation suffer under an inadequate health care system.

Over the course of the last ten years, Joan’s name, the organisation she established in 2006 and their Darkness into Light event has become synonymous with support, empathy and understanding, but despite opening nine branches in Ireland, one in New York and helping in excess of 28,000 individuals, Joan is by no means done.

With a renewed verve and vigour, Joan is currently focussing on child and adolescent mental health in Ireland by proposing Project 95 which seeks to prohibit the admission of children into adult psychiatric wards while offering solutions to issues which may arise under the new legislation.

“Can you imagine how terrifying it must be for a distressed child to be admitted into an adult psychiatric unit?” she asked. “What a bleak picture of the future it must paint?”

Following her determination to highlight the damage such an approach can have on an impressionable child and their distraught family, Joan has been granted a Public Consultation Day which will act as the first step in the creation of a report which will be presented to the Seanad and the Government.

Ultimately, the Public Consultation will facilitate a forum for those engaged with, and affected by, the services and provide a platform for those with an in-depth insight into a matter which desperately needs attention.

“I’ve spoken to a mother who had to sit with her 12-year-old son –  a highly intelligent child – in a very distressed state in an A&E in Waterford Hospital,” Joan told us.

“They were advised to travel to Cork to see a consultant child psychiatrist who was then unable to treat the child as he was outside the hospital catchment area.”

“That child’s parents slept on either side of him that night,” Joan added. “I mean, the lack of interest, the lack of care in this country, is just staggering.”

While understandably galvanised by the Public Consultation Day and the inroads it will potentially make in the government’s approach to children and mental health care, Joan is concerned she will not be able to do enough during her time as senator.

“The senator’s role only lasts as long as the government, ” she reminded us before swiftly turning her attention back to the positive change the Public Consultation is sure to create.

“I am thrilled, I can’t tell you how thrilled, that this is happening. We’re saying ‘tell us your story’, ‘what’s it really like?’ and it’s just so, so important.”

The closing date for submissions to the Public Consultations Committee is Friday, May 12, so if you seek change in the area of children’s mental health in this country, this is your opportunity to make your voice heard.

You can find out more right here or alternatively, visit Senator Freeman’s Facebook page, email joan.freeman@oir.ie or seanadpublicconsult@oireactas.ie.

And if you want to put pen to paper, you can post your submission to:

Bridget Doody,
Clerk to the Seanad Public Consultation Committee
Seanad Office,
Leinster House,
​​​​​​​Kildare Street,
​​​​​​​Dublin 2.

But wait, there’s more! Pieta House’s Darkness Into Light, supported by Electric Ireland, takes place at 120 venues across Ireland on Saturday 6th May at 4.15am. To find your nearest venue and to register, check this out!