Tom Mooney’s report ‘when out of hours care proves fatal’, is an investigation of the paucity of out of hours care made available to people suffering from the abrupt onset of mental illness. In putting together his report, Tom interviewed family members of victims of suicide as well as a number of experts in the area of mental health.
As part of his investigation, Tom looked at the case of young mother Paula Breen (23) who took her own life hours after both Wexford General Hospital and Waterford Regional Hospital deemed that she was not a suicide risk. Tom also exposes the upsetting case of murder-suicide committed by Sharon Grace, who approached a hospital one Saturday evening in a distressed state, was told to come back in the morning, and drowned her two young daughters and herself within the hour.
Tom’s work was published as a series of articles over a five week period in the Wexford Echo. The investigation exposed a number of loopholes in the current system and contributed to the awareness of the urgent need for better risk assessment with the intention of helping to prevent other cases in the future.
Please see links to Tom’s published work below.
Part 1 – Published on Tuesday, 19th July 2016
Read Part 1 of Tom Mooney’s ‘When out of hours care proves fatal’ online copy here.
Part 2 – Published on Tuesday, 26th July 2016
Read Part 2 of Tom Mooney’s ‘When out of hours care proves fatal’ online copy here.
Part 3 – Published on Tuesday, 2nd August 2016
Part 4 – Published on Tuesday, 9th August 2016
Part 5 – Published on Tuesday, 16th August 2016
