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A COURT WAS told an aftercare programme for a child in State care had to be put in place despite the teenager being reluctant to engage with relevant agencies.
The court was told that neither her mother or father were present during a hearing last month.
The judge was told a plan needed to be put in place for when the teenager completed her Leaving Certificate. There have been behavioural issues with the child with one incident recorded where she set fire to a bedroom.
The court heard attempts have been made for the child to see a psychiatrist but she only attended on one occasion and walked out before the session was finished.
To date, the child has missed more than 30 days of school this year. Her social worker said she can’t seem to grasp the concept that she needs to attend school in order to do well in her exams.
She doesn’t see the importance in going to school and thinks she will do well.
The judge said that it was positive the child had expressed an interest in third level education. “However, the reality is, this could all fall apart if she doesn’t attend school,” he added.
The judge asked whether family members in her life might be able to offer some encouragement and questioned whether residential placement should be conditional on signing up to further education.
The social worker said the the child seems to ‘think that everyone is wrong, bar herself’.
The judge said this was not unfamiliar in many circumstances with young people.
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In another case, the court also discussed the aftercare plan for a young man. His social worker said he was doing “extremely well” in school and had plans to go on to further education.
The judge was told that neither his father or mother were court and that contact was sporadic.
The boy was said to be upset during his last access visit with his mother. The mother says she is inconsistent with her visits due to money, however, the child is aware she has been away on holidays.
His social worker said he was doing very well in his foster parents and will stay on with them after he exits State care.
The child’s guardian ad litem said she was concerned that no aftercare plan was yet in place. The judge said a draft plan should be in place ahead of the boy completing his exams.
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These two cases highlight the work required of State agencies to ensure that children leaving State care are still being looked after. A child does not stop being parented when they turn 18 and the same must be the case for children who have been raised in the system.
Epic, a group set up to empower young people in care, helps teenagers move toward independence in adult live. Aftercare services are provided to young people up to 23 years of age, or until they finish full-time education.
The group has put together a guide to leaving care by people who have been through the experience. The extensive 187-page document includes practical information on housing, banking, education, work options and recipes.
It also outlines what can go wrong, including details on homelessness, drugs and alcohol and legal rights.
In a video on Epic’s website, Dwane recalls how he regrets not engaging with an aftercare plan when he first left residential care.
“Don’t be scared, take every little bit of help they are willing to give you. Because, in the end, if you don’t take that help and you’re on your own, you will regret that. I regret that now because there were so many other opportunities for courses and education that I could have went through that she offered me and I just didn’t. So, go for it. Take everything you can get,” he concludes.
With reporting by Sinéad O’Carroll
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The mindless distruction of Wood Quay by Dublin City Council deprived future generations of what was possibly the most important archaeological site in western Europe and a major lucrative tourist attraction. Instead we have possibly the ugliest building in Europe.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: Agreed. http://www.historyireland.com/volume-22/heritage-outrage-wood-quay/
@Honeybadger197: I was on that march, thanks for the link.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: Good man, no problem.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: Absolutely 110% correct. This was mindless vandalism by Dublin City Council and if The Minister of Arts and Heritage has her way they will destroy the Moore Street 1916 Battlefield site too. Our future generations heritage is in the hands of mindless individuals who’s motivations are seriously suspect.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: didn’t the Danish government lobby the oiks here in trying to realize the significant nature of woodquay
What happened at Wood Quay is one of the greatest scandals in modern Irish history, the largest Viking Settlement in Europe discovered in our capital city, the revenue that could have been made from tourism, and they built that horrendous obscenity on top of it. The DCC offices should be torn down and the site preserved.
During the time of Brown Envelopes
@Mick Cullen: you say that as if somehow it were in the past Mick. It isn’t. It’s the same as ever and with NAMA getting worse no doubt. Unaccountable, enormously wealthy NAMA. The ultimate ‘hong bao’ (red packet) as they say in China. But plenty more besides it.
Caffrey (my own mother’s surname) stems from the son of Godfred (Viking). McAuliffe, from son of Olaf. McAuley, also from Olaf. In the Irish language, we have margadh, scilling, bád, garraí, seol, etc. They left a very rich heritage in our history. Doyle, Gallagher, etc. have also been linked to the Vikings, but we’re not 100% certain
We know one thing. Sam Stephenson proved them bones dem bones dem dry bones make great hardcore for office block foundations.
Amazing really. To look at those bones and reflect that when they were animated it was in a world so far removed from ours, topographically and geographically the same but in every other aspect far removed as ours as the next habitable planet from us is. To look at their goods and see they’re not so different from ours yet though. Those are the goods of civilized people, at least civilized towards each other and perfectly barbaric to everyone else. And are we so different today, with our foreign wars and colonisations (as in we in the West)? But we absorbed them, despite two hundred years of largely turning the other cheek it seems to me, booted them out at Clontarf and kept what they left behind. So they’re us too. We should have respect for them even if they, setting fires at the bottom of round towers and smashing up the altar vessels while robbing the gold and silver, killing the monks and burning their books of knowledge that were the only things preserved the accumulated wisdom of the Classical Age, did not much respect us. Suppose few hundred years from now archaeologists will be excavating the ruins of Anglo-Irish houses and churchyards and we’ll be saying the same and holding no heart hearts towards their descendants in England no more than we do to the Vikings now. Time heals all as it erodes all.
@John O’Driscoll: well written
It was the Vikings that brought red hair to this country, now every c#nt on the planet thinks everyone with red hair is Irish. Thanks a bunch Vikings
@Blue Moon rising: And the cancer gene as some believe? But is red hair not Celts???
@Blue Moon rising: Did you mean to say blue eyed and blond?
@Alois Irlmaier: I had that perception too until a visit to Denmark; I was expecting blonde & fair but was surprised to discover that red hair & freckles predominates
Those two buildings should be to torn down what lies beneath is worth more to Dublin now and in the future than for office space for civil servants
Very interesting, thank you. A word of caution though. Radiocarbon dating has a pretty wide potential error margin. During the Early Medieval period written historical evidence is usually far more reliable for chronological stuff in Ireland in particular. Wish it weren’t so, to cast doubt on such a good story, but lets enjoy the possibility anyway…..
Well their hardly going to meander into the national history museum and say pull a chair up we have something to tell you lovely people of Ireland. The Vikings were savage they played a part in this world but there gone.
The part about the man getting on with it in spite of having a bad back is definitely appropriate to me. Since 2015 I’m waiting for help with a bad back and still waiting under the HSE. I guess I’ll take it to to my grave like this guy. The only difference is my grave won’t be robbed because the Viking dies with more possessions than I have.
The Viking’s were not really see off there were other settlements around the place apart from Dublin
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