Orders granted allowing highly vulnerable teenager to be placed in special care unit

The High Court has made orders allowing Tusla, the child and family agency, to place an at-risk girl who has spent more than two years in an inappropriate psychiatric facility into a special care unit for troubled teenagers.

Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy said he was satisfied to grant the orders sought by Tusla, represented by Paul Gunning BL, so that the girl can receive the supports and services she requires.

Counsel said the highly vulnerable teenager had regularly tried to self harm and had made multiple suicide attempts. He said his client was seeking to have the girl placed in a special care unit as she would not be “safe in the community”.

The special care application will be mentioned again before the courts later this month.

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The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has been awaiting a place in special care since July, but has spent a lengthy period detained at a psychiatric unit despite not having a mental disorder.

While the facility she was detained at was deemed unsuitable, those in charge of the girl’s treatment argued she should not be released into the community or be allowed return home for her own safety.

The girl availed of outpatient facilities provided by Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) more than two years ago before becoming an in-patient, under the Mental Health Acts, at the psychiatric unit.

Lawyers representing the HSE, the girl’s court-appointed legal guardian and her mother had argued before several judges that she was at risk of suffering long-term harm if she remained in the psychiatric unit any longer. They said she needed to be moved to a special care unit.

Tusla accepted that the teen met the criteria for a place at a secure special care unit, but it was unable to move her to an appropriate setting as there was no place available. As a result, Tusla asked the courts on several occasions to continue her detention in the psychiatric unit due to fears for her safety should she be released.

Following the application, Ciaran Craven SC, instructed by Prospect Law Solicitors, for the girl’s mother, said separate judicial review proceedings taken against Tusla on the girl’s behalf over its alleged failure to comply with its statutory obligations to provide a special care placement could be adjourned to a date in new legal year, which started in October.

Counsel said that while parts of those proceedings are “moot” now that the special care orders have been made, certain less urgent aspects of that action, including a claim for damages, remain in being.

The remaining arguments will be return before the court at a later date.