Children’s ombudsman critical of placing youths in adult facilities

Young people who are placed in adult psychiatric facilities are continuing to experience a “gross interference” of their human rights according to the Ombudsman for Children.

Speaking at the launch of his organisation's annual report on Monday, Dr Niall Muldoon was also critical of Ireland's rapidly increasing population of homeless children, and commented that the current system of temporary accommodation may end up "like direct provision" for our own citizens.

The report shows the number of complaints dealt with by the ombudsman on an annual basis decreased by 77 to 1,600 for the calendar year of 2014, with almost half of complaints relating to education-related issues.

Dr Muldoon only assumed his current position in February, but figures for last year show that just two per cent of complaints where actually made by children, with three-quarters coming from parents.

His office noted 90 cases where children were admitted to adult psychiatric facilities in 2014 despite pledges by the Government to eliminate the practice within its current term of office.

“The children and young people placed in such settings are in need of care, compassion and treatment from specially trained staff but instead are just monitored to ensure they don’t commit suicide,” he said.

He continued: “They’re being asked to go into situations that nobody should be asked to go into at that age. We’re storing up trouble for ourselves because we’re not fixing the problem, and we may be exacerbating it in those situations,” adding that it is “well past time” for commitments to be followed through on.

Latest statistics show 1,500 children are now being catered for in temporary accommodation, compared to 60 homeless children which the ombudsman dealt with in 2011. The current situation presents a “nightmare scenario” for children according to Dr Muldoon.

“My concern would be that if we leave part of the solution being temporary accommodation without somewhere to move onto we’ll end up with something like direct provision in future where our own citizens who’ve fallen down through no reason of their own… are living in hotels and B&Bs for indeterminate periods of time.

“That’s just not appropriate. For children that is just a nightmare scenario- there’s no place to play, no safety, no security,” he said.

While admitting that a solution to the homelessness crisis is not immediately obvious, he urged all concerned parties to work collaboratively into the future in order to provide a resolution.

The ombudsman expressed reservations about the use of the single separation method of isolation at the Oberstown child detention facility following last month’s report from the Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) which noted more frequent use of the technique.

He did, however, commend Hiqa on its oversight of the Oberstown campus, and called on the Government to immediately move all 17 year-olds out of the Wheatfield and St Patrick’s prisons and into Oberstown where more reliable oversight mechanisms are in place for youths.

Dr Muldoon also alluded to the Child and Family Agency Tusla’s difficulty in assessing reports within the target time of 21 days, which he said left over 2,000 children “in a vulnerable situation without the proper, timely support from the State”.

The office of the Ombudsman for Children has now dealt with over 10,000 complaints during its first decade in existence, and the report explored a case study of a mother who had three children with a degenerative muscular disease who was waiting for over three years to be moved to appropriate accommodation.

The complaint was eventually resolved and, working together with the relevant council, the ombudsman’s office helped to identify a suitable four-bedroom new-build unit nearby which the family could move into in early 2015.