Cries for help going unanswered

HSE’s system allows troubled teens to suffer on, writes Jennifer Hough

IT was clear to all the professionals involved in his case that long before 17-year-old Christopher O’Driscoll was found dead clutching a rosary beads in a derelict house in Cork city he was on a self-destructive, downward spiral.

Just weeks before his death, he had smashed up rooms in Pathways, a homeless shelter for teenagers in Cork city, and started throwing himself in front of traffic. He was also refused entry to B&Bs used by the Health Service Executive because of his increasingly chaotic behaviour.