The principal social worker dealing with a troubled and at risk boy - who claims years of failure by health boards and the State to care for him adequately - has told the High Court a team of supports and professionals was put in place for him and was always available to him.
Given the fact that the boy is now aged 17, it was always the view, on the closure last April of a unit where he had been making progress, that he would have to be moved to a stage of semi-independent living, she said.
She denied a suggestion by Mr Mark de Blacam SC that, when the unit was closed on April 9th, there was no adequate plan in place for the boy.
The fact that a care plan dated February last did not outline the specific proposals did not mean there were none, she said. Her case file was a working file and this was a difficult case which required sometimes daily interventions and sometimes crisis intervention.
Since the South Western Area Health Board took over management of the boy's case from January 2003, there had been an incredible level of anxiety about how to manage the boy and to keep him safe, she said.
This was in the context of an awareness that the boy could not continue to be detained and would have to be managed in the community, which involved risk.
The boy was vulnerable and was using heroin intermittently and would go absent for periods without communicating with the professionals caring for him, she said. It was very difficult to deal with that level of anxiety. While he could be very engaging, the boy could also be very difficult and would not co-operate at times with those trying to care for him. He regarded himself as an adult and wanted to live independently.
The social worker was testifying in the continuing hearing of the action by the boy against the SWAHB and the State.
The boy is from a seriously dysfunctional family and is one of 10 children of severely alcoholic parents who have been described as incapable of parenting.