Boy who didn’t ‘want to wake up any more’ among those helped by family resource centres urging funds

The Government has been urged to ensure a once-off €1 million investment in community-based therapy for children and adults this year is repeated in order to save hundreds of young people from languishing on waiting lists for mental health services.

A report due to be published this week into a post-Covid “Recovery and Resilience” programme operated by 83 Family Resource Centres (FRCs) around the country will show 4,548 children and 3,820 adults have benefited this year.

Some 15,347 hours of therapeutic care was delivered as a result of the funding, which was allocated in December 2022.

Fergal Landy, chief executive of the FRC National Forum, said while the €1 million paid to the network of family resource centres nationwide had been intended as a response to the challenges lockdown and Covid-19 had sparked, continuing it next year was a “no-brainer” given the “transformative impact on communities around the country”.

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He said a wide range of therapies provided with the funding had had a very positive impact on children and families who would otherwise not be in a position to access counselling.

“Otherwise children suffering from anxiety might be taken to the family GP, who invariably will refer them to CAMHS [Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services] where they will go on a waiting list for one to two years,” he said.

[ Variation in child mental health services across HSE is ‘unacceptable’ ]

“If we do not receive further funding, we cannot continue that good work. Given that the overall HSE budget is in excess of €21 billion, €1 million seems very little given the positive impact on the lives of so many families.”

Among those helped was a seven-year-old boy who didn’t “want to wake up any more” and a young person who presented with suicidal ideation after losing their father and grandfather in the past year.

Centres have also had to deal with a wide range of issues, including, for example, fallout from the Ukraine war. “One centre assisted a child who had lived underground in Kyiv for weeks,” and was traumatised as a result, Mr Landy said. He said the centres would never turn away anyone needing help.

The report authored by Grace Kearney, who led the FRC National Forum’s Recovery and Resilience project, documented several other case histories of families who benefited and who she stressed would not have been able to access alternative counselling.

“If this funding was not available through the FRC programme many of these young people and their parents would have fallen through the cracks,” she said. “Early intervention and prevention work is crucial for communities and ultimately combats waiting lists and situations escalating”.

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“This service is a lifeline for communities,” she said “and because we provide a range of services there is absolutely no stigma attached.”

“There is none of this rigmarole of being on a waiting list to access the service. You can be forgotten about on a waiting list.”

A spokesman for the HSE said a total of €10m in once-off funding was allocated to support initiatives to meet the additional mental health needs of the population during the Covid pandemic.

“This funding was once-off, as communicated to all partners at the outset,” said the spokesman. “There is no available recurring budget for these initiatives, which were designed in response to societal mental health needs arising during the Covid pandemic”.

The HSE said the “diverse range of partners” who had benefited included family resource centres. It pointed out it funds and supports a number of organisations locally and nationally that provide mental health supports/clinical interventions at primary care level.

Case studies

*A five-year-old boy living in direct provision who had been moved three times since his family sought asylum in Ireland was struggling emotionally. The family were financially deprived and could not access private therapy. They were faced with a two-year wait for public psychology services.

The child was refusing to go to school, was displaying “extreme anger” towards his parents and other children and had physical ailments such as headaches, related to his anxiety.

During play therapy the child “shared memories of his home county and related trauma, learned techniques on managing ‘large’ emotions and learned how to cope with separation anxiety”. He is now attending school daily, with limited problems, while “aggressive behaviours have reduced towards parents and peers” and his anxiety has reduced, according to the report.

*A seven-year-old boy referred with acute anxiety had become withdrawn, secretive and reclusive. He expressed that he didn’t “want to wake up any more”.

The child engaged in play therapy, which allowed him to explore his issues through play. It emerged that the high levels of anxiety were stemming from peer pressure through online gaming.

The parents were referred to the FRC Family Support Worker who empowered them to have boundaries in place regarding screen time, and provided education surrounding activities and resources to help their child engage in prosocial activities with family and peers.

*A 13-year-old boy was experiencing low mood, anxiety, intrusive thoughts and school refusal. He had an autism diagnosis, which resulted in him being bullied at school. He coped with this by hiding under his school desk initially, and then progressed to full school refusal and complete withdrawal from society. Services to support him were very limited due to his rural location.

This child engaged in child and adolescent therapy at his local FRC. According to the therapist: “He got his voice and confidence back. As we approach finishing the therapy sessions, he will be given a ‘toolbox’ of resources, contact numbers and strategies that worked for him over the course of the intervention.”

*A severely bereaved young person, who lost both their father and grandfather in the past year, presented to the FRC with suicidal ideation, “expressing extreme feelings of sadness, loneliness and anger”.

The young person, from “a poverty stricken home”, lives with his mother who, the report noted, also struggles with her mental health.

Both the mother and the young person received therapy. The young person now looks forward to counselling every week and told staff they are feeling happy, something they thought would not happen again.