The consultant whose whistleblowing revealed serious failings at Kerry’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) says she is prepared to return to her former post if it would help tackle the service’s growing waiting lists.
Dr Maya Sharma raised the alarm in 2020 through a protected disclosure, warning of unsafe prescribing practices within Kerry CAMHS.
Her decision came at a steep personal cost: she lost her job and later found herself homeless in London. However, her concerns were subsequently upheld in two Health Service Executive (HSE) reports, while Government ministers publicly commended her for speaking out.
Dr Sharma has also secured a court settlement from the HSE after being penalised for her whistleblowing.
In an emotional interview with the MoS in April, she described sleeping rough in London after her reputation as a whistleblower — compounded by a negative HSE reference — damaged her chances of finding work in the UK.
During this time, Dr Sharma suffered a near–fatal assault and at one point resorted to sleeping at Heathrow Airport.
But now, with the help of supporters and friends, Dr Sharma has returned to Kerry where she has just opened a new private practice in Killarney.
The new private clinic – The Maya Sharma Practice – is just a short stroll from Dr Sharma’s old HSE office, where she has not yet been replaced.
Speaking to the Mail this week, Dr Sharma said she feels guilty charging patients when she could be seeing them for free in the HSE if circumstances were different.
Speaking to the Mail this week, Dr Sharma said she feels guilty charging patients when she could be seeing them for free in the HSE if circumstances were different
‘It feels very strange, you know, to be sitting here,’ she said.
‘I mean, I could walk to my previous workplace, South Kerry CAMHS, where they still don’t have a consultant, and they are doing telemedicine with a consultant.’
Dr Sharma stressed her intention is not to compete with or replace the HSE’s CAMHS service.
‘My clinic is an addition to the existing CAHMS services, not a replacement,’ she explained.
‘The idea is to add capacity to an under–resourced CAMHS that has a 12– to 15–month waiting list. We have 4,000 children on wait lists across the country.’
But in an ideal world, Dr Sharma said she would prefer to still be working for the HSE where she could help reduce waiting times for vulnerable children without having to charge families for private practice.
‘I’m here offering… and they’re doing telemedicine. It makes no sense,’ she said. ‘They [CAMHS] don’t need to do telemedicine. I’m available full time.’
Since opening her clinic on August 8, Dr Sharma has seen an increasing flow of frustrated parents from Kerry and Cork seeking help as their children linger untreated on public waiting lists.
‘Somebody with a vulnerability towards mental illness will develop it more severely and more quickly and more frequently present with crisis if they are not helped early,’ she said.
‘Every patient who I’ve seen or who has been referred to me or who has self–referred is saying that their child is deteriorating on the wait list and they have no option left, so they have to come to a private psychiatrist. They should not be in this position in this country. It’s not a poor country.’
In an ideal world, Dr Sharma said she would prefer to still be working for the HSE where she could help reduce waiting times for vulnerable children without having to charge families
This is a point she hopes to raise with Taoiseach Micheál Martin when they meet in the near future. The meeting was first mooted during the summer, when Mr Martin met mental health campaigner Davin Godfrey in Government Buildings.
The meeting was also attended by the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley, Kerry TD Michael Cahill and Kerry county councillors Tommy Cahill and Jimmy Maloney.
After the hour–long meeting, Mr Godfrey said that he felt he had moved a step closer to achieving his goal of a State apology for all CAMHS victims.
He also welcomed a commitment from Mr Martin that the Attorney General, Rossa Fanning, would be asked to prepare the legal groundwork for any forthcoming formal apology.
Now poised to begin a degree in law and politics as a mature student at the University of Limerick, Mr Godfrey – who refers to Dr Sharma as a ‘hero’ – has become a figurehead in the ongoing campaign seeking justice for all those affected by CAMHS.
But any State apology cannot proceed until the second phase of a forthcoming report into North Kerry CAMHS is released early next year.
Just some of the Irish Mail on Sunday’s coverage of shocking CAMHS Kerry failures
Mr Godfrey is one of hundreds of children who were harmed by horrific failures at Kerry (CAMHS), which he detailed in an interview with the MoS last month.
Like many others, Mr Godfrey lost much of his childhood when the HSE and CAMHS prescribed dangerous, inappropriate and completely unnecessary drugs between the ages of seven and 19.
Rather than receiving the simple supports that he needed for his autism as a child, Mr Godfrey was fed a bewildering mix of antipsychotic drugs, sedatives and other medications – none of which were based on any mental health diagnosis.
As a consequence of this cocktail of medicines, the then–teenager ballooned in weight and grew breasts, which had to be surgically removed.