Health Service director called in on teenager's case

Judge Angela Ni Chonduin today ordered the Health Service’s Executive’s director of disability services to attend the Children’s Court next week to outline what assistance could be given to a mentally ill teenager who is currently being held in custody.

The 18-year-old youth, is currently on remand in St Patrick’s Institution, pending efforts to find a suitable facility for him.

He had been first held in custody in February, then aged 17, following his arrest for criminally damaging his north Dublin home by fire.

His parents had him charged in the hope that some assistance would be found for him.

In April he was transferred to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) for psychiatric treatment which ended last week.

A doctor from the CMH told the court last week that the teen needed a “step down” placement in the Mater Hospital, in Dublin.

A doctor from the Mater Hospital later told the court that the youth needed a placement in a disability service and not a psychiatric service. He then recommended that the Daughters of Charity Hospital would be a more suitable hospital for the teenager.

The teenager’s solicitor Ms Margaret MacEvilly told the court yesterday that this hospital held that the teenager was “too intelligent” to be placed there.

Judge Ni Chonduin said that the youth “has fallen between two stools.”

“Basically the psychiatric services are saying that he needs a disability service. The disability services say he needs a psychiatric service.”

She ordered the Health Service Executive’s director of disability services, Ms Violet Harford, to attend the court case on Tuesday to outline what facilities could be offered to the teenager.

She refused to grant bail saying that the teenager’s family would not be equipped to care for him.

Earlier the court had been told that the teenager had psychiatric problems and had the “interpersonal age equivalence” of an infant aged one year and nine months.

Other assessments have put him on the level of a child aged four.

His arrest came after he torched his family home and decapitated his nephew’s pet turtle and cut one of its legs off in front of him, the court had heard previously.

In February, he was remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison in the hope he would get psychiatric help.

Two months later, he was transferred to the CMH for treatment where he had been until Thursday when he was discharged and remanded in custody to St Patrick’s Institution.

Concerns were also raised that his family would not be equipped to look after him and if he failed to take his medication he could suffer a relapse.