17 garda calls to home for troubled teens

GARDAÍ had to be called on 17 occasions to help restore order in a home for troubled teens.

Two young people were charged with offences arising out of an incident in the high support unit (HSU) in the Health Service Executive North Eastern Area (HSENEA).

There were four charges in all, one of criminal damage, two relating to incidents involving members of staff and one involving an assault on a young person. The incidents to which the garda responded took place over the course of a year leading up to an inspection of the unit in July by the Irish Social Services Inspectorate (ISSI).

The report of the inspection, published this month, said the teenagers clocked up 26 unauthorised absences in the 12 months prior to inspection.

Previously, young people had regularly left the unit without permission “and in circumstances where they were clearly putting themselves at risk of harm”, the report said, but a draft working document, prepared in May, proposes to deal with unauthorised absences. ISSI inspectors have commended the document.

Both the young people and the care staff whom inspectors interviewed described management as accessible and supportive. However, “there had been some serious lapses in management practice.”

Inspectors were informed of a situation where a young person’s placement ended following a serious assault on a staff member. Staff members who witnessed the incident described it as an unprovoked attack.

The official complement of child care leaders and workers at the unit was 38 but at the time of inspection, there were only 36 employed and some of these were part-time. Inspectors were informed that no new staff could be recruited.

Inspectors had concerns about the contracts that the young people were required to sign on admission to the unit because they were “essentially one sided.”

“They placed responsibility for engaging with the programme of the HSU on the young people with no reciprocal obligation on HSU staff to engage,” the ISSI said. The ISSI recommended the contracts be radically altered or their use discontinued.

On the upside, the young people interviewed by inspectors were happy to live in the HSU. “They clearly valued the opportunity to pursue education and training options that had not previously been available to them,” the report said.