Teenager needs secure placement 'to save her life'
The mother of a teenage girl at the centre of an investigation into whether she has been sexually exploited while in State care says her daughter needs a secure placement to save her life.
The mother of a teenage girl at the centre of an investigation into whether she has been sexually exploited while in State care says her daughter needs a secure placement to save her life.
The 15-year-old girl has been the subject of a voluntary care order since last October and has been moved to a number of emergency units in the east of the country since then.
She has gone missing up to 20 times since last October.
On one occasion, she was found in the company of a man in his 30s in a hotel room. Gardaí are now investigating that incident.
Her mother wants her to be moved to a secure in-patient facility and to have a “comprehensive psychological assessment”.
Her family believes she has an undiagnosed mental illness. She has been referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs) but does not have a diagnosis.
The mum now has a legal team examining the possibility of going to the High Court to apply for a secure care order for her daughter.
"I don’t recognise my own child now when I hear the things she says and the things that she does," the mother said.
She says her daughter can be violent and writings in her diary are dark in nature.
She said her daughter is just one of many children being failed by the state.
“People know there are issues there but nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Children are falling through the cracks,” she says.
“Sometimes I want to bury my head in the sand, but at the end of the day, this is my daughter. Unfortunately, I am not in a position where I can bring her back home and meet her needs because I don’t have a clue what to do. She can be violent. I have been asking for help.”
In June, a study, , was published by the Sexual Exploitation Research Project at University College Dublin, which found that young people in residential care, or who go missing while in State care, are being targeted for sexual exploitation.
It noted that hotels across Ireland are being used as locations for sexual exploitation.
A spokeswoman for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, said it does not comment on individual cases to protect the privacy of the children and families.
However, the spokeswoman said the criteria for any psychological assessment is guided by the individual child’s needs.
When children go missing from State care, an absence management plan is developed to assess the risk, Tusla said.
In cases where a child is regularly absent from their placement, “there is enhanced communication between Tusla and An Garda Síochána, and particular attention is paid to these cases", the spokeswoman added.
