22 children died on State’s watch in 2017

Causes of death include suicide, Tusla report finds

A TOTAL of 22 children and adolescents registered with the State child protection agency died last year, according to Tusla’s National Review Panel.

One young person died from a drug overdose while three committed suicide. Five of the 22 children and young people were in care, while 17 were known to social work services.

Of those five children in care, two died from natural causes, one died from suicide, one died as a result of a domestic accident, while another child died from an unknown cause.

Overall, two of the suicides were girls and one was a boy.

The NRP reviews cases where there is a serious incident or death in relation to a young person in the care of the State.

It published its annual report Panel chair: Dr Helen Buckley for 2017 yesterday. The report found that five years on from the separation of Tusla from the HSE, ‘communication difficulties continue to emerge between social work departments and the HSE public health nursing service’.

The total number of deaths notified to the NRP since Februdescribed ary 2010 is 171. The average death rate is 21 young people over the last eight years and ‘the trend has been reasonably consistent’, according to the NRP.

The report assesses the care provided from the age of three for a person the report calls ‘Jim’, who died of a drugs overdose at the age of 19.

The panel’s chair Dr Helen Buckley said that Jim had been receiving aftercare services from Tusla for less than a year before he died. She said the review was delayed for many months while awaiting Tusla’s foster care records – which were ultimately declared missing – and that further delays occurred while Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) prepared its report.

Dr Buckley said that Jim was put into care because of parental substance abuse, criminality and domestic violence. He was as an endearing young child who had a good sense of humour, but he was also considered vulnerable. At age six, he was referred to CAMHS and was diagnosed with ADHD.

Dr Buckley said that as Jim grew up, his behaviour was often difficult, and he abused drugs and alcohol, which contributed to the termination of most of his placements. But one foster placement lasted for nine years.

Later he lived in a series of residential units.

His psychiatrist was of the view that his main problem was not his ADHD but his anxiety about his placements and his experiences of loss.

After a dispute with her, the aftercare service placed him in supported lodgings; he had to leave there because of his behaviour and eventually moved in with his father and later to a homeless hostel.

Dr Buckley concluded that the management of Jim’s case, including the planning and implementation of interventions, was inadequate at times.

Case management ‘inadequate’