THE Eastern Health Board faces serious difficulties in finding enough qualified social workers to cope with the increasing number of abuse cases, according to an EHB report.
Since 1992, the number of cases referred to the board has jumped by nearly 63 per cent to 12,158, the report, Child Care and Family Support Services in 1995, says.
The availability of an adequate number of professionally trained social workers has proved to be extremely difficult in the region in 1995, and vacancies exist in almost all areas," it notes. "It appears that the needs of the board are not being met by the numbers of social workers being trained in the universities."
The EHB has held interviews in Britain and in Irish universities and has sponsored a number of social work students. "In spite of measures such as these, acute difficulties still exist," according to the report.
A large amount of abuse comes under the heading of neglect, it says. "Heretofore, cases of child sexual abuse have attracted great attention. It should also be recognised, however, that the effects of neglect are silent and pernicious."
Neglect includes leaving children on their own, letting them starve, not looking after them when they are sick, leaving them in the cold and not supervising them.
Infants neglected in this way are lethargic, irritable, depressed looking and temperamentally "difficult". They also have feeding problems and are slower than other infants to develop in terms of speech, physical ability and interacting with other people.
Families in which neglect of this sort occurs are often isolated from friends and neighbours. The report says projects to work with such families are essential to prevent or halt child neglect.
The report notes that one boy, under 14 years of age committed suicide in the EHB area in 1994 and that nationally six boys aged 10 to 14 killed themselves. Three males and three females aged 15 to 19 killed themselves in the EHB region in the same year. Nationally, 21 males and four females in that age group committed suicide.
The report claims that the practice of placing homeless young people in bed and breakfast accommodation in Dublin has ended because of the opening new facilities.
The EHB's provision for homeless young people "now compares favourably with that in other capital cities of developed societies."
"Service provision for this age group is fraught, complex and frustrating," it says.