This article is from page 4 of the 2008-06-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CLARE children with intellectual difficulties will remain forgotten and neglected because there is no dedi- cated intellectual team for children in the county.
According to the 2007 Mental Health Commission Annual Report, a consultant psychiatrist visits the county just once a month to provide a mental health clinic for 120 children.
In between these visits, all clinical problems – including prescription of medication – are dealt with by phone.
The commission’s report into men- tal health services in the country showed that there were no nursing
staff, psychologist, social worker, oc- cupational therapist, speech and lan- guage therapist or any other facilities available to these children in Clare.
The report carried out by the In- spector of Mental Health Services found that since the last report in 2006, there had been no change in provisions for services for adults and children with an intellectual dis- ability who require a mental health service.
“There was a need for the HSE to take a lead role in organizing the de- velopment of this specialist service based on a catchments population model,” it said.
‘The child and adolescence service
in Limerick, Clare and north Tipper- ary remain under-resourced. None of the multidisciplinary teams had a full complement of core staff.”
The report stated that there was a part-time consultant psychiatric post designated to children who at- tended the Daughters of Charity, but observed that early intervention teams set up in the region do not see
was in contact with staff who had not received the required Garda clear- ance.
“The staff had also not received training in the care of these children. “Appropriate accommodation, in- cluding segregated sleeping areas and bathroom areas, were not avail- able in the unit.”
The annual report also. stated,
children with more that two develop- “Children admitted to the unit did not
mental delays.
Meanwhile, the report into mental health practices in Clare was critical of the admission of a child to the psy- chiatric unit at Ennis General Hospi- tal in November 2006.
The report revealed that the child
have access to appropriate educa- tion provision. The unit has a written operational policy and protocols in relation to the admission of a child but this did not include a policy and procedure in relation to parental con- sent.”