This article is from page 6 of the 2013-04-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
CLARE children are almost twice as likely to be admitted into a psychiatric hospital as children born in the rest of Ireland. According to the State of the Nation’s Children report, published by the Department of Children last week, a total of 20 Clare children were placed in the care of a psychiatric hospital in 2011 – the most recent year on record.
This means that Clare’s rate of committal per 1,000 children is 65.2 – the second highest in Ireland after Tipperary. Clare’s committal rate is almost twice the national average, which stood at 37.9 children per 1,000 in 2011.
The counties with the highest rate of children being admitted to psychiatric hospitals were all located in rural areas. Each of the counties with the highest rate of children placed in the care of a psychiatric hospital have suffered a major downgrade of their primary hospital in recent years with Clare, Tipperary, Roscommon, Monaghan and Leitrim having the highest ratios.
According to the report, 435 young Irish people were admitted to psychiatric hospitals in 2011. The vast majority of these young people were under the age of 18, however information concerning three people who were over the age of 18 but treated in child and adult units was also in- cluded.
Meanwhile, the report also revealed that Clare has the lowest rate of children with a registered intellectual disability in Ireland. According the State of the Nation’s Children report, just 148 Clare children had a registered intellectual disability in 2011.
The county’s rate of children with a registered intellectual disability is 4.8 per 1,000 children – almost half the national overage of 7.7 per 1,000 children.
The report does not give any indication as to why Clare should have such a low rate of intellectual disability compared to other counties. Besides being a possible indicator that Clare has a low level of children with intellectual disability, it could also be interpreted to indicate that Clare children with intellectual disabilities are less likely to be diagnosed or are less likely to be officially registered with the statutory bodies once diagnosed.