Agency left 'desperately begging' for help in child mental health cases

The latest batch of reports from the Child Care Law Reporting Project highlight serious mental health issues among young people as well as a prevalence of domestic violence, a factor in almost one-fifth of cases. File picture

Child law expert Carol Coulter has said the Child and Family Agency is "in a bind" when it comes to securing mental health supports for children, and can end up "desperately begging" for help from the HSE and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) which may never arrive.

The latest batch of reports from the Child Care Law Reporting Project (CCLRP) highlight serious mental health issues among young people as well as a prevalence of domestic violence, a factor in almost one-fifth of cases.

In one case no inpatient bed was available for a teenager with “significant and immediate” mental health concerns. The boy, who was using drugs and alcohol, had threatened his parents, hurt himself, and absconded from a hospital. The court was told CAMHS did not believe the child was at “immediate risk”. 

Dr Coulter, director of the CCLRP, said: "Too many children seem to fall outside the CAMHS net and we have seen instances where cases, which we think would be very worrying, do not appear to merit immediate assessment and treatment."

She said there were instances where an in-patient bed seemed warranted but couldn't be provided, whether this was due to resources or other reasons.

Desperately begging for services

"The Child and Family Agency are in a bind," she said. "They are not the providers of mental health services – it's the HSE and CAMHS. So the CFA can be desperately begging for services for children, but that's all they can do."

In another case, a primary school-age child was considered a risk to his mother and siblings but CAMHS had not been able to offer a service to the boy due to the instability of his home.

The boy had beaten his mother "black and blue" and had threatened a neighbour with a knife, but due to his young age, no suitable special residential placement was available.

Tusla first became aware of the boy five years previously and 22 referrals had already been made by gardaí and school staff following concerns he had suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his late step-father.

The mother’s lawyer said the boy was “out of control” since early childhood.

Dr Coulter said she was concerned that no special care place was available as the boy was below the age of 11, at which point special care placements can be considered.

The reports from the CCLRP also includes a case in which an unaccompanied minor went missing, to the alarm of the judge, who said the child may be “in the control of somebody else”. It's understood the child has still not been found. 

Gardaí were to follow up on a fingerprint request to Interpol, while a mobile phone number in the boy's native country was a "dead end". The judge in the case said: "Would you be concerned if you thought a minor was trafficked in here and then put to work to carry drugs? Something doesn’t add up.”

Domestic violence

The reports cover the period from last January and almost a fifth feature domestic violence as a factor. Tusla has already noted an increase in child protection referrals from domestic violence refuges but Dr Coulter said while there had been "an uptick in references to domestic violence", she was unsure if that was attributable to the most recent lockdown, as many cases have been in the courts over an extended period of time.

The 53 reports come around the country and Ms Coulter said there was evidence of delays in some regions in getting cases heard – something which may now be exacerbated by the recent ransomware attack on the HSE and Tusla.

Last week, Tusla admitted the ransomware attack was also causing fresh difficulties in some legal proceedings, particularly for social workers, and Ms Coulter said: "We would be concerned that it would impact in further delaying things."

All reports will be published at www.childlawproject.ie/publications/.