Teen care facilities - State fails its most vulnerable

THE appalling inadequacy of facilities for troubled teenagers in this benighted country is starkly underlined by today’s disturbing revelation that no service has yet been provided to fill the void left by the closure of the state’s main secure unit.

In typical fashion, the HSE was at pains to promise that the loss of the 12-bed mixed centre at Ballydowd last year would not mean fewer places for young people who rank among the most vulnerable in society. Not surprisingly, that has turned out to be yet another unfulfilled promise because, as we learn six months later, no alternative has so far been provided to fill the gap.

The state is duty bound to provide secure residential facilities for young people between the age of 12 and 17 who are detained for a short period by the High Court for their own safety and welfare.

As things stand, however, there are only four secure places in the country for young males and nine for females in need of high psychological support. They consist of a mixed-bed unit for four in Limerick and five in Cork for females.

While the HSE was forced to close the residential care unit at Ballydowd when a report found it was unfit for purpose, it appears that conditions in the alternative centre at Crannóg Nua, which is not open to referrals, are hardly much better, if at all.

The gross inadequacy of existing facilities is plain to see. As evidenced in the manifest failure to implement the recommendations of the Ryan report on the sexual and physical abuse of children by the Catholic Church and Government, there is a heavy onus on the state to honour its duty of care to vulnerable teenagers on the margins of society.

If ever a case illustrated the risk of young people falling through the safety net, it was the untimely death of murder victim Daniel McAnaspie.

Is it asking too much to expect that the special panel being set up under the aegis of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to review the circumstances of Daniel’s death will act with a greater degree of independence than we have seen to date in an area where the decisions of officialdom are concealed behind an opaque haze of smoke, mirrors and obfuscation? Arguably, a fully independent public inquiry into his treatment at the hands of the state is warranted if further tragedies are to be averted.

Until more back-up personnel are supporting those at the coalface of childcare, social workers will continue to play a fire-fighting role, going from crisis to crisis. The plight of troubled young males in need of care is that until the HSE is capable of providing facilities that are fit for purpose, they are doomed to a situation where they remain at high risk, a potential hazard to themselves and society at large. From every conceivable perspective, that scenario is totally unacceptable.