Our People In CAMHS Services
5 Minutes With Mairéad Doyle, Dietitian
How does your day start?
I get to work within 30 minutes, greeted at reception by our front of house staff. I take some free coffee in case stats are being recorded and we lose our fancy coffee machine. I walk down the corridor always meeting a colleague or 2 on the way. I log on so that some automatically timed e-mails can reach a person’s inbox at a normal hour. Then I join handover where the MDT congregates for daily clinical updates e.g. inpatients, referrals, unit operations. Then we go for coffee together upstairs.
Tell us about the team you work with.
We are an inpatient CAMHS team in one of the 4 Approved Centres for CAMHS in Ireland. Between various disciplines of HSCPs, doctors, nursing, HCAs, admin staff, there is an eclectic mix of personalities, gelled well together by mutual trust and respect for one another. My second family. Many of the team are working together on the team for over 10 years. Always placing the patient at the centre, we collaborate on many complex cases, malnutrition being a frequent symptom, taking an individual approach to working with every young person, their family and relevant agencies.
What does your typical working day involve?
In inpatient CAMHS, there are clinical and educational meetings with the young person and parents, MDT, catering, community CAMHS teams and external agencies e.g. Tusla as well as operational meetings.
In community CAMHS there are similar meetings but most of our time is spent in clinic with young people and their parent(s) / carer(s) advising on nutrition strategies.
Education and management of side effects of medications e.g. atypical antipsychotics and methylphenidate, under-nutrition, over-nutrition and disordered eating, the relationship between food and mood, the normal distribution of BMI centiles; as well as contribution to food and nutrition policies and audits.
What motivates you in your work?
The 5 things that motivates me are being able to engage in:
- Problem solving with the MDT, everyone contributing a piece of the puzzle.
- Helping people overcome habitual barriers to a healthy lifestyle and how this can positively influence their mental and physical health.
- Establishing parity of esteem within CAMHS in Ireland whereby both physical and mentally health are equally cherished.
- Making the healthier choice the easier choice.
- Empowering the young person and their family to manage their condition themselves at home to enable them to live life to its max.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I am proud to work as a mental health dietitian. I like to be able to respond in a rapid manner to people requiring urgent mental health care and I like the comradery and flexibility that comes with it. I enjoy being a skilled HSCP with extensive knowledge, translating science into lay language for people to understand from their perspective.
I like to be challenged with interesting family dynamics and unusual presenting complaints. I work creatively with patients with moderate to severe mental illness including eating disorders, psychosis and mood disorders to sustain behaviour change.
It is rewarding to be able to make a difference in someone’s life and seeing that first smile following a period of malnutrition.
What advice would you give someone considering a career in CAMHS?
- Take the leap and try it out.
- Ask any of the CAMHS dietitians in Ireland for an opportunity to shadow.
- You will learn a lot about yourself and you will advance in your specialism through lifelong learning.
- There is plenty informal peer support available through HSCPs on the CAMHS teams.
- CORU Registered Dietitians are the only discipline the HSE can employee who are able to assess and advise patients on nutrition problems. CAMHS needs you.