Mental health campaigner and musician Niall Breslin has appealed to the Government to act now to help young people dealing with mental health issues, calling it the "epidemic of a generation".
Addressing the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning, Mr Breslin said his passion for helping people dealing with mental health problems dates back to his own struggles.
He told the committee how "crippling insomnia, harrowing panic attacks and incomprehensible self-harm dictated" his life.
Mr Breslin said the Government needed to act to help young people dealing with mental health issues.
He said: "Agonising suicide rates, disturbingly high anxiety and depression rates, self-harm, OCD. We simply cannot ignore this. We have to be honest and ask ourselves, truly are we doing enough?"
Mr Breslin said the nation was in a period of transition and that "the stigma that has ravaged families throughout Ireland for generations is slowly eroding".
Many families feel abandoned, he told the committee, and people also had to drive hundreds of miles and wait months to see a healthcare professional.
Mr Breslin proposed a number of measures including mental health and well-being being implemented in the education curriculum.
He also said there needed to be an increase in funding and support to organisations helping people with mental health issues.
Dr Paul D'Alton, the senior clinical psychologist at St Vincent's University Hospital, also addressed the Committee.
