My health is vitally important to me. I think it’s easy to neglect something until you no longer have it. I often take my health, physical and mental, for granted. If I am unwell, I focus on my health whereas when I am fit and healthy I tend to neglect myself. In recent months I have been trying to remember to say a quiet word of thanks for the health that I currently enjoy and this reinforces the idea that it is something I need to take care of on a daily basis. One of my new year’s resolutions has been to do one thing a day for my body or my mind to improve my health. This is sometimes a small thing like drinking two litres of water or saying something positive to myself, or a bigger thing like climbing a mountain or getting out for a run.
My healthcare is becoming more important to me as I get older. I no longer feel as invincible as I did a few years ago and I recognise that at best I will experience some minor ill health during my life as we all do. Knowing how poorly resourced the healthcare system in Ireland is does worry me as I know that I will probably require it at some point in my life. It’s frustrating and unnerving to feel that I couldn’t rely upon services that are supposed to help me if I am unwell.
My health fear is me or someone close to me being given a diagnosis of a long term or terminal illness. That is difficult enough to cope with alone without the added strain of worrying about whether I could provide for it financially.
My healthcare fear is not having access to the services or treatments that could save or improve my life. I think if I or a loved one was ill the knowledge that something could help but that I couldn’t afford it would be devastating.
Ireland’s healthcare is without a doubt unfair. Those that can’t afford private healthcare are penalised for this every day through lengthy waiting lists, inadequate frontline care and hospital facilities and reduced access to services. Healthcare access is frighteningly disparate across locations. If somebody is unfortunate enough to live in an area that has no service to meet their needs then it is a lonely road indeed, with little option but to plough onwards without assistance. Ireland’s mental health is something that is of great importance to me given my professional background; in recent years more discussions about mental health are being had but by and large it is still an area that is stigmatised and greatly under resourced. This is understandable in a developing country where mortality rates are very high as mental health is secondary to survival but is inexcusable in a supposedly first world country that claims to value its citizens. The role of charitable organisations cannot be underestimated; if it were not for them, there would be few platforms from which to air major issues such as increasing rates of depression and suicide across the community and problems pertaining to adolescent mental health.
My healthcare dream for Ireland is that every person, man or woman, adult or child, could rely upon a system that would provide for them when they are at their most vulnerable. As it stands, only those with vast amounts of money have the luxury of adequate healthcare.
I, Clare Kambamettu, have signed the Healthcare Guaranteed petition and have asked the government to provide a legal guarantee of equal access to healthcare in Ireland. You should too.
