Centre for teenage boys cost €1.5m last year

A CENTRE IN Limerick that treats teenage boys showing problematic sexual behaviour cost more than €1.5 million to run last year, new figures show.

Elm House at Drombana was set up in 2004 with a programme focused on addressing problematic sexual behaviour in adolescent boys.

The Health Service Executive said yesterday that last year, five teenage boys were in placements at the centre and a further two people were given a community-based intervention, which prevented their admission into residential care.

In 2009, six teenage boys were placed at the centre, which is on the outskirts of Limerick city.

The centre cost €1.52 million to run last year, according to information provided by the HSE following a Freedom of Information request. That included €1.36 million spent on staff pay and records show that 22 social care staff are employed at Elm House.

The running costs for this year are expected to be lower, with the figure for the first six months at €707,520.

The HSE said: “The roster has two waking night staff every night and allows for high levels of supervision of the young people, some of whom, given their needs, require two-to-one supervision.”

At the moment, there are three young people at Elm House full-time and one young person in transition to the centre, the HSE said.

The programme in place at the centre “uses a trauma-informed approach to treatment” and a placement usually lasts up to two years, according to the HSE.

The centre has recently been inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority and its report is due to be published in September or October. An internal HSE inspection report carried out last May shows that two boys were being cared for at that time.

One 17-year-old boy had been there since October 2009 and the overall aims of his placement were “to give the young person clear boundaries in a structured environment. To implement the unit programme and to provide the young person with a high level of supervision.”

In relation to a second 17-year-old admitted since last November, the overall aim of his placement “is to keep the young person safe until he is 18” in the coming December.

When a resident of Elm House appeared at a recent sitting of Ennis Circuit Court, the centre manager, Diane Curran, said that when the teenager was admitted he “was quite a fragile young man, quite distressed in himself. He is very different to the man we see today.”

Ms Curran said that the boy “had opted out of education and was really struggling with managing things”.

However, she said that that “the boy is fully co-operating with all aspects of programme and has not caused us any problems in terms of his behaviour”.