THE CIRCUMSTANCES surrounding the death of a 15-year-old girl who spent periods of time homeless was not recorded in her file, while her disclosure that she had engaged in prostitution appears not to have been followed up on.
The girl first came to the attention of the HSE aged 13. Her parents were unable to control her and she was out of school as a result of her conduct. She had at least six different placements during her two years in care, in which time she had four different social workers.
It appears that, for “one period of seven months, no social worker was allocated to this case despite the high risk to her wellbeing noted on her files”.
She went missing for periods when it is understood she was living on the streets, and travelled abroad at one point. She was identified as being at severe risk of harming herself or others from early on in her contact with services.
During one month when she was living on the streets, she “attended at local hospitals a number of times with injuries which had been self-inflicted and disclosed numerous attempts to take her own life”.
Finally an application to authorise her detention in a specialist facility was made to the High Court.
She was detained at a specialist facility for almost two years but absconded many times.
“On each occasion as soon as she was offered more freedom she met up with people who had befriended her when she lived on the streets, and she appears to have recommenced abusing both alcohol and drugs,” the report notes.
After having absconded from a work placement she went missing for weeks, in which time she made calls to her social worker during a time gardaí and the HSE were looking for her.
Her body was discovered two weeks after the last telephone contact with her social worker.
She had been known to the HSE for three years and was in care most of this time.
Among the report’s concerns in relation to the case was that no information on the circumstances of the teenager’s death was recorded on her file; the file was very poor, confusing and difficult to follow; there may have been a failure to follow up allegations of abuse made by the teenager and a failure to follow up a disclosure of involvement in prostitution; and there was no record of notification of her death to the High Court.
A case management review was carried out on behalf of the HSE and completed in 2001.
It identified many recommendations for the future of troubled young people but it is not known if these were implemented.