Dinah's story

My name is Dinah Tarjanyi and I live in the UK.

Right now, millions of young people are being put at risk by the crisis in mental health care. A few years back, I was one of them. Having grappled with poor mental health for years as a teenager, I decided to seek help. After many positive experiences of the NHS as a child, I had high hopes of starting treatment.

Sadly, what happened next opened my eyes to how so many patients like me are being let down by cuts, fragmentation, and privatisation in our NHS.

My experience is now the norm for many young people: I was seriously ill, but I had to repeatedly push just to get an appointment. I lingered on a waiting list for months without any help. I was bounced around so many different services. Eventually I was given counselling - but this was totally the wrong kind of treatment for my conditions. After that, I just gave up trying to get help. Chasing my own mental healthcare was exhausting, and telling my story to so many different people had been harrowing.

Thankfully, things did start to get better for me - and now I am committed to campaigning for a healthcare system where no young person has to experience what I went through. That’s exactly why I’m involved with Just Treatment.

Right now, we are developing a brand new campaign around access to young people’s mental healthcare, led by the experiences and stories of patients and their families. This is an issue that’s affecting millions of patients, that’s ripping families apart, and that highlights exactly why accelerating privatisation of the NHS is so damaging. It’s the canary in the coal mine for what could become of our entire health service.

My mental health story does have a happy ending – or perhaps a new beginning. I have now received official diagnoses, and I have been referred to a wonderful therapist through my university’s student support system. But not everyone’s stories end this way. That has to change.

Together, we can ensure that no young person is denied the care they need.