Emergency care order for two teenagers after mother became ill

Two young teenagers were taken into emergency care after they raised the alarm about their mother who was not washing herself or leaving her bedroom and was not cooking for them or washing their clothes. She would sometimes sit on the couch muttering and mumbling to herself.

They were worried however that they might get in trouble for being absent from school earlier this week when they went to a child protection office to get help for her.

They told a social worker they were worried their mother was unwell again. The girls had been getting into pyjamas as soon as they returned home to keep their school uniforms clean, Judge Marie Quirke was told yesterday at the Dublin District Family Court.

A social worker and the mother’s psychiatrist conducted a home visit and afterwards they contacted gardaí. The doctor told gardaí he was worried for the children.

Garda visit

Giving evidence, a garda said he had visited the family home on Thursday afternoon, following the doctor’s call. When they knocked on the door they could hear a commotion inside and it took several minutes before the door was opened.

The mother was “incoherent”, the garda said, and the children were visibly upset. He said they explained they were there to help, but the mother was very unco-operative.

They arrested her under the Mental Health Act and she became violent and needed to be handcuffed, the garda said. She was admitted to hospital on an involuntary basis. The children were taken into emergency care, pending a court order.

The social worker said the children had been in care before, when their mother had had psychiatric problems in the past. Her illness had stabilised and child protection had last visited the home in early 2015.

She said on Thursday the children had two worries. They were afraid they might get in trouble for mitching from school, when they went to the child protection office, and they wanted to apologise to gardaí, on behalf of their mother, for her behaviour. The court heard the children’s previous foster carer had remained in contact with the family and the children were being placed with her again.

The judge made an emergency care order for eight days.

Death threat

In another case, the court was told a father had threatened to kill a social worker, find out who her family was and follow her home from work. He also threatened the mother of the child, who had separately got a domestic violence protection order against him.

A social worker said earlier this month, the mother had contacted her and said she could not protect her child and was in fear for her life. The social worker said she had called gardaí and sought a place for the mother in a women’s refuge, but there was no bed available over the weekend. The mother called foster carers who had previously looked after the child, and asked them to take the toddler. They agreed, on a voluntary basis. The mother was given a place in a refuge the following week.

Aggressive

She told the court her ex-partner had been aggressive, had been banging on the door and windows, shouting in the letter box and had called her 161 times in one day. There was no facility for her to go to with her child, so she had placed her in care.

“I got [my child] safe then I got me safe,” she said.

The father opposed the application and said he could look after the child if the mother needed a break. He said he made threats against social workers because they were a disgrace.

“They look at it as anger and aggression; I look at it as passion for my child,” he said. He said social workers had pressured the mother to get a protection order and everything was “90 per cent their fault”.

The judge made an interim care order for one month.