Care unit staff powerless to stop runaways

Staff are virtually powerless to stop troubled teenagers from absconding from special care units with many simply walking away, according to internal documents.

In one case, a 15-year-old girl in care took the keys of the unit’s car after assaulting a staff member with a wheel brace and trying to steal her mobile phone.

Another teen ran away from staff in the toilet of Supermacs “in the space of 30 seconds” and when she was found by gardaí at 5am was under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Documents released to the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show the lack of power staff have over troubled teenagers in what is supposedly the most secure care outside of detention through the children’s court.

The records detail how many teens absconded from a crisis-hit care unit in Cork, Gleann Alainn, during 2010 and 2011. They show that the girls, although detained on foot of a High Court order for their own safety, can just walk away from staff when on outings from the unit. Staff, who are mainly social workers, often follow the girls, but more often than not rely on gardaí to bring them back.

The reports show that:

* A girl ran through an estate and over a bridge to a train station. She threw an empty vodka bottle and rocks at staff and followed the track towards Limerick;

* A girl jumped out of a car at a busy roundabout and ran into woods and was lost among buildings on the other side of the wood;

* A girl got out of a car and walked off with two older men of Eastern European origin, with one of whom she was holding hands;

* A girl absconded from a High Court waiting room in Dublin while the judge waited for her to appear.

In one incident, when a girl ran off, staff members and a psychologist followed a bus by car to Cork City centre until it stopped on the Grand Parade. The bus was met by gardaí who escorted the girl to the unit.

In other incidents, staff have been abused verbally and physically assaulted.

As revealed in the Irish Examiner this month, eight staff at Gleann Alainn were on sick leave at the end of 2011. Absenteeism is rife across the country’s three special care units because of the stresses attached to the work, including assaults and abuse, and brings the suitability of the system into question. Although the HSE has promised that reforms are under way in the units, many staff members are constantly on sick leave at a significant cost.

Twenty staff in the three units, which together provide 17 places for troubled teens, were on leave at the end of Dec 2011 (nine in Ballydowd, Dublin; eight in Gleann Alainn, Cork; and four in Coovagh, Limerick). Over three years 14,000 sick days were recorded at the three units which have a little more than 100 staff between them.