>Dr Sharma claims that after highlighting the 55 cases, calling for extra resources and telling parents what happened, he was told to take time off and later confined to administrative duties on the basis he was showing signs of burn-out, even though he disputed that he was.
Typical.
This does not surprise me at all. Camhs prescribed drugs for my child. When I got home and Google them it stated a mmr and blood pressure must be taken prior to taking the drug. I got back to camhs and told them what I read online. The doctor said yes that’s normal I just didn’t think you would mind. Wtf the medication could have killed my kid. I got my gp to do a mmr and blood pressure cos camhs are not fit for purpose. I now pay private.
Edit I mean ECG. It was Adhd medication that could be dangerous if u have a heart condition.
Because of the stupid panel recruitment system that the hse insists on, a lot of psychologists and psychiatrists end up working with population groups they have no experience with and no interest in working with either
What I don’t understand (I’ve never worked in CAMHS) is whether the NCHD in question was under supervision. The following excerpt raises a lot of concern:
>A separate HSE investigation is also under way after a teenage service user, deemed by a consultant to be in need of an urgent appointment with South Kerry CAMHS, took their own life last year after the appointment was never arranged. Dr Sharma said he believed the death had been “entirely preventable”. That probe is unrelated to the controversy surrounding Dr Kromer, a non-consultant hospital doctor who worked at the CAMHS unit between 2016 and 2020.
>
>**During this time, Dr Kromer occasionally also had a side job giving Botox injections at beauty salons. Dr Sharma said Dr Kromer had no previous CAMHS experience.**
For those with no experience of how these things work, an NCHD like Dr Kromer would typically be working under a consultant’s brief in both clinics and on wards. The only time they would be left “alone” would be if they were on call, even then still operating under whatever consultant is on call. Even experienced psychiatric trainees will work under a consultant. So this leads me to one of two conclusions. Either a) this entirely inexperienced NCHD was given free reign to prescribe psychiatric medications for children with no oversight whatsoever or b) this entirely inexperienced NCHD was given free reign to prescribe psychiatric medications for children with an oversight mechanism that either didn’t care or agreed with his prescribing.
This is what a shambles of a system looks like. Dysfunctional from its core.
It’s a fairly common problem with CAMHS. My doctor and psychiatrist didn’t liaise and I was on multiple meds for the same thing.
I was prescribed a drug that’s not to be prescribed to minors and it triggered psychosis in me and I ended up in A&E over it. The doctor there didn’t so much as look at my meds (he would’ve realised I shouldn’t be on them if he had) and he labelled my psychosis as misbehaviour
And then there’s the other side where (adult) patients have to fight to be diagnosed with ADHD and then have to continue fighting to get the proper meds. I went private and got my sever ad(h) diagnosis last year. But still ongoing to try and get a prescription for meds that might make me finally functional. “Hi, my brain cannot do stuff without the stuff doers” – “have you tried journaling and prioritizing tasks”
Yes. I have like 10 bullet journals, a white board etc. BUT MY BRAIN CANNOT DO STUFF WITHOUT THE STUFF DOERS, FFS. Yes, I do sports. Yes, I eat healthy. No, the SNRI doesn’t help. I’m depressed because I cannot do stuff, not the other way around. Gimme the stuff doers. I just want to be able to wash the dishes every day, is that too hard to understand?
Dear everyone in the comments, you are not doctors.
The overall reliance on just doping people up is a worrying trend but when safety is just totally thrown to the side it’s just disgusting. I say this in relation to people who suffer from depression, Anxiety and the like; we shouldn’t immediately go to “alright take the happy pill” just to shove people out the door or we’ll end up like the yanks who put every young lad on ADHD meds because shock horror, a 7 year old is rowdy.
I don’t really see how this is a big “whistleblowing” event. Anyone who’s been through CAHMS knows it’s awful.
As someone who has been through CAHMS in 2012, they don’t care, don’t listen, follow a strict routine (They fobbed off my anxieties and problems and at 14, asked me to draw a picture of my family as a sort of “diagnosis”, as if I’d draw my parents with Satan horns or something). They also just go “hmm make a journal of your feelings :))))”.
I remember I asked to do a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, something that can actually work *without* medication. And I just got told “hmm sorry we don’t offer that you’ll have to go private :)))”.
The end result of every single course of CAHMS is just getting slapped on SSRI’s as they use them as a blanket solution because they don’t care about solving problems.
I’ve been on SSRI’s since I was 14 and still am at 23. I tried to wean myself off them in 2020 with the help of my GP, did it too quickly because he wasn’t really specialised in that field (went from 10mg to 0mg after only 2 months) and became near-suicidal and couldn’t leave my bed for a week. I had to be put back on them because I was essentially reliant on them to function.
I have managed to reduce my dose of Escitalopram from 10mg to 5mg currently, by going down in steps of 2.5mg every 6 months. Hopefully by next year I’ll be off them for good. The only reason I was able to combat my OCD and anxiety was through self taught CBT, stoicism and a lot of research.
The mental health system did fuck-all to help me apart from sticking me on a drug. I was able to manage to come out the other side, but a lot of other people may not be able to handle their problems on their own.
The public mental health system in this country is atrocious and this story isn’t really a surprise to anyone who’s gone through it.
I know at least three people who went into Child and Adolescent Psychiatry after medical school, finished post grad exams and then after a few years left for another jurisdiction (1) or left clinical practice altogether. At our last reunion, one such person left because they were so sick of the service being under resourced. The state of public Mental Health services both adult and child, is shocking.
That’s a pretty metal photo of Dr Sharma in the article there
11 comments
>Dr Sharma claims that after highlighting the 55 cases, calling for extra resources and telling parents what happened, he was told to take time off and later confined to administrative duties on the basis he was showing signs of burn-out, even though he disputed that he was.
Typical.
This does not surprise me at all. Camhs prescribed drugs for my child. When I got home and Google them it stated a mmr and blood pressure must be taken prior to taking the drug. I got back to camhs and told them what I read online. The doctor said yes that’s normal I just didn’t think you would mind. Wtf the medication could have killed my kid. I got my gp to do a mmr and blood pressure cos camhs are not fit for purpose. I now pay private.
Edit I mean ECG. It was Adhd medication that could be dangerous if u have a heart condition.
Because of the stupid panel recruitment system that the hse insists on, a lot of psychologists and psychiatrists end up working with population groups they have no experience with and no interest in working with either
What I don’t understand (I’ve never worked in CAMHS) is whether the NCHD in question was under supervision. The following excerpt raises a lot of concern:
>A separate HSE investigation is also under way after a teenage service user, deemed by a consultant to be in need of an urgent appointment with South Kerry CAMHS, took their own life last year after the appointment was never arranged. Dr Sharma said he believed the death had been “entirely preventable”. That probe is unrelated to the controversy surrounding Dr Kromer, a non-consultant hospital doctor who worked at the CAMHS unit between 2016 and 2020.
>
>**During this time, Dr Kromer occasionally also had a side job giving Botox injections at beauty salons. Dr Sharma said Dr Kromer had no previous CAMHS experience.**
For those with no experience of how these things work, an NCHD like Dr Kromer would typically be working under a consultant’s brief in both clinics and on wards. The only time they would be left “alone” would be if they were on call, even then still operating under whatever consultant is on call. Even experienced psychiatric trainees will work under a consultant. So this leads me to one of two conclusions. Either a) this entirely inexperienced NCHD was given free reign to prescribe psychiatric medications for children with no oversight whatsoever or b) this entirely inexperienced NCHD was given free reign to prescribe psychiatric medications for children with an oversight mechanism that either didn’t care or agreed with his prescribing.
This is what a shambles of a system looks like. Dysfunctional from its core.
It’s a fairly common problem with CAMHS. My doctor and psychiatrist didn’t liaise and I was on multiple meds for the same thing.
I was prescribed a drug that’s not to be prescribed to minors and it triggered psychosis in me and I ended up in A&E over it. The doctor there didn’t so much as look at my meds (he would’ve realised I shouldn’t be on them if he had) and he labelled my psychosis as misbehaviour
And then there’s the other side where (adult) patients have to fight to be diagnosed with ADHD and then have to continue fighting to get the proper meds. I went private and got my sever ad(h) diagnosis last year. But still ongoing to try and get a prescription for meds that might make me finally functional. “Hi, my brain cannot do stuff without the stuff doers” – “have you tried journaling and prioritizing tasks”
Yes. I have like 10 bullet journals, a white board etc. BUT MY BRAIN CANNOT DO STUFF WITHOUT THE STUFF DOERS, FFS. Yes, I do sports. Yes, I eat healthy. No, the SNRI doesn’t help. I’m depressed because I cannot do stuff, not the other way around. Gimme the stuff doers. I just want to be able to wash the dishes every day, is that too hard to understand?
Dear everyone in the comments, you are not doctors.
The overall reliance on just doping people up is a worrying trend but when safety is just totally thrown to the side it’s just disgusting. I say this in relation to people who suffer from depression, Anxiety and the like; we shouldn’t immediately go to “alright take the happy pill” just to shove people out the door or we’ll end up like the yanks who put every young lad on ADHD meds because shock horror, a 7 year old is rowdy.
I don’t really see how this is a big “whistleblowing” event. Anyone who’s been through CAHMS knows it’s awful.
As someone who has been through CAHMS in 2012, they don’t care, don’t listen, follow a strict routine (They fobbed off my anxieties and problems and at 14, asked me to draw a picture of my family as a sort of “diagnosis”, as if I’d draw my parents with Satan horns or something). They also just go “hmm make a journal of your feelings :))))”.
I remember I asked to do a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, something that can actually work *without* medication. And I just got told “hmm sorry we don’t offer that you’ll have to go private :)))”.
The end result of every single course of CAHMS is just getting slapped on SSRI’s as they use them as a blanket solution because they don’t care about solving problems.
I’ve been on SSRI’s since I was 14 and still am at 23. I tried to wean myself off them in 2020 with the help of my GP, did it too quickly because he wasn’t really specialised in that field (went from 10mg to 0mg after only 2 months) and became near-suicidal and couldn’t leave my bed for a week. I had to be put back on them because I was essentially reliant on them to function.
I have managed to reduce my dose of Escitalopram from 10mg to 5mg currently, by going down in steps of 2.5mg every 6 months. Hopefully by next year I’ll be off them for good. The only reason I was able to combat my OCD and anxiety was through self taught CBT, stoicism and a lot of research.
The mental health system did fuck-all to help me apart from sticking me on a drug. I was able to manage to come out the other side, but a lot of other people may not be able to handle their problems on their own.
The public mental health system in this country is atrocious and this story isn’t really a surprise to anyone who’s gone through it.
I know at least three people who went into Child and Adolescent Psychiatry after medical school, finished post grad exams and then after a few years left for another jurisdiction (1) or left clinical practice altogether. At our last reunion, one such person left because they were so sick of the service being under resourced. The state of public Mental Health services both adult and child, is shocking.
That’s a pretty metal photo of Dr Sharma in the article there