"Psychiatric services for over 65 Sligo"

My husband has never suffered from a mental illness before but on a bank holiday weekend my husband had a mental breakdown.

We went to doctor on call who gave us a letter referring us to St Columbus Hospital. My husband was assessed by a lovely psychiatrist who wanted him to stay in hospital but my husband did not want this, so the psychiatrist prescribed him some pills and told him someone would be in touch over the next couple of days.

On the Sunday a psychiatric nurse call Tara phoned our home to see how my husband was and to tell us he was to go into Liscarney house the following day to be assessed. She was a lovely lady and she was like an angel sent from heaven to me that day as I was feeling pretty low and upset myself but she was very reassuring.

So the following day my husband and I went into Liscarney house and we were very pleasantly surprised and amazed at the facility they run there, it is absolutely superb. I believe it is a team effort on behalf of St Columba's Hospital, Sligo General Hospital, the geriatric services and the psychiatric services. My husband was assessed by Gavin and Joanne whilst a lady by the name of Marguerite spoke to me. They were absolutely fantastic and so professional. They must all have been handpicked for this job they are so caring.

They decided they would like my husband to stay in hospital for a few weeks but again he was not keen to do this, so he was told no problem we can go to plan b which means coming into Liscarney day hospital everyday for the next few weeks. In Liscarney house they have access to doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, occupational therapist; everything you could wish for is all there under the one Roof. Needless to say my husband has not looked back since. We've been told he will be on medication for possibly 2 years and will still need to go to Liscarney house a couple of times a week but my husband is so happy and so pleased with everybody's help. He is getting better much quicker than we thought he would.

We consider ourselves to be so very lucky to be living in county Sligo and to be able to avail of this fantastic service. All of the staff that I have met there are absolutely superb there's Sharon, Pauline, Gavin, Marguerite, Joanne, and Dr McCarthy to name just a few. They are all brilliant people and they work very very hard

We hope that by telling our story it might help other people who have never had contact with any psychiatric services to please ask for help, it’s out there ......thank you all so very very much from the bottom of our hearts