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HSE CHIEF PAUL Reid today apologised for the failings within the South Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and described the practices at the facility as “beyond comprehension”.
The report, published by the HSE yesterday, found that 46 of the children suffered “significant harm” while attending the service and that a review into 240 young people showed the service did not meet the standards which it should have.
It found that 227 children being treated by a non-consultant doctor employed at the service were exposed to the risk of significant harm due to the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment of them.
These issues included sedation, emotional and cognitive blunting, growth disturbance, serious weight changes, metabolic and endocrine disturbance, and psychological distress.
Speaking today at the HSE’s media briefing, HSE boss Paul Reid said what happened at this facility was “deeply regrettable”.
“It is deeply regrettable, beyond comprehension… and just so wrong what happened in relation to the south Kerry CAMHS. The report very clearly demonstrates that some of the basic clinical oversights and prescription processes and general management processes were at least lacking and if not, in some cases abandoned.
“There’s no doubt it had a very significant impact on many children, which the report sets out and, indeed, on many of their families. None of us could bear to think how we might feel if one of those were our children who went through what some of these families and children have had to go through so as CEO, I certainly want to sincerely apologise for what had happened over a sustained period of time into service in this area.”
Reid said that the report into the CAMHS service has shaken the confidence of the public with the health system and it is the job of the HSE to go and repair that damage.
Children’s Ombudsman, Dr Niall Muldoon, said today that the report was devastating for the families involved.
“It was just the sense of massive betrayal for the children and families in carrying those involved, because these are children and families, they’re looking for help at the lowest ebb for children.
“To get in, waiting lists are usually between a year and two years and then when they get in, they’re so grateful. The system is supposed to support them, that if there’s a difficulty with an individual doctor, and the system should pick it up. And it’s clear that over four or five years, there were a few red flags were never addressed and it’s really concerning.”
The Mental Health Commission (MHC) said it is now reviewing the report. The independent statutory body said that the 2001 Mental Health Act currently does not provide the MHC with the regulatory powers in relation to CAMHS or other community mental health services.
A spokesperson said: “On completion of its review, the MHC will form a view on whether any intervention may be required, to include providing advice to the Minister, and to ensure the safety, care and welfare of children and adults receiving mental health care services in Kerry and the rest of the country. The MHC has also requested an in-depth briefing from the HSE on the Kerry CAMHS report, which will inform its review.”
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so the Irish people that were trafficked weren’t trafficked…gotcha , I was beginning to wonder had that well known Leitrim to Donegal route kicked off again….
Keep allowing them in and soon enough it will be your daughters and granddaughters that Thell be grooming for sex. Not just yet, it’ll take more of them to live here before they get the courage, but it’s on its way, keep watching.
The people involved in this should be locked up for life ie 30 years plus
@Fjordie, the people involved in this will be out as soon as possible, this allows the legal industry to make more money off them the next time their caught, when again, they will be promptly released, and the legal industry continues to rake in the money, look at what happening now, people with up to 100 prior convictions being given suspended sentences, why, so the legal industry can make money from having their product in circulation.
Suspended sentences all round
change the record
Must have heard about the gravy train the you can go on after exploitation. #inbeforetheracists.
And the prize for most obnoxious troll goes to…
not to mention incoherent
What is conspicuously missing from this story is a very important question;
“How many of these children were in State “Care” when they were trafficked?”
We’ve had this conversation before, when it emerged that 500 went “Missing” from “Care”, but when the truth emerged it was found that the entire thing had been covered up by Gardai, the HSE and the government. The truth was that that we only found out because Wikileaks released diplomatic documents from the American Embassy in Dublin. While the government said they were “Missing”, the US State Dept. showed that most had been accounted for and were trafficked. Many of the children were found in brothels or enforced slavery.
You’ll have to pardon me for using quotation marks on the word “Care”. I wonder will Wikileaks have to step in again to find out how many of these children were in State “Care”?
So true.
Ireland is not known as the Hub of child trafficking for nothing.
Yes children in care are prostituted out- but the state never prosecutes itself.
No one in power wants to know and use excuses like – secret court rules, blahhhhhh,blahhhhh
The Immigrant Council yet again calling for ”the criminalisation of the purchase of sex”, completely ignoring the fact that coercive trafficking and commercial sex work are entirely different things. Amnesty, UNAIDS, The World Health Org and as of today the UK Home Office Select Committee all advocate decriminalisation but apparently the ‘experts’ of TORL, ICI & Ruhama know better.
Thanks lily ☺
Not a bother. Negative attention is still attention right? Lap it up pet.
your talking to me aren’t you? you realize you don’t have to? lol
@Lily, their beliefs and culture are not compatible. What would you say to anyone of the women who were abused/raped in Europe, or to the countless children, what you say to the mother of the young boy who was raped in a public swimming pool in Europe only to be told that the reason was the immigrant had a “sexual emergency”. And yes, our own countries have our own issues, but it’s committed by perverts, whereas it’s the accepted culture where these people come from.
Conri, Nowhere did I make any comment to suggest I condone violence or assault. You have done a marvellous job of reading subtext where there was none.
@Lily, As you have, no where did I say you did condone violence , you also have done a marvellous job of reading subtext where there was none, we’ve so much in common you and I. Actually I was just stating (as a comment in response to yours) that this is an incompatible culture and will lead us down a very dark path if something is not done to stem the flow, it’s been described as an invasion, I agree with this. Can you please respond to the following question: do you want to see some of our towns and cities end up like some of Britain’s, unrecognisable to English people, unsafe for them to venture into ?
have your say