A 14-year-old Co Clare autistic boy is set to spend a second year in care in a secure adult psychiatric unit due to the Mid-Western Health Board's failure to provide alternative residential care for him.
On September 5th last year the boy was admitted to Unit 5B of Limerick's Midwestern Regional Hospital after an incident at the family home where he nearly stabbed his father with a steak knife, prompting the emergency services to be called.
During the past 12 months the health board has failed to provide alternative secure accommodation for the boy, and his father said yesterday: "There is no alternative on the horizon, and I cannot see my son moving out of Unit 5B in the next year."
He criticised the lack of effort by health board management in seeking to provide a secure residential place for the boy.
"The health board at senior management level has made no serious effort to address the issue and it could start by communicating with us on the issue and stop ignoring the situation," he said.
"Health board management don't know what to do and are hoping the problem will go away. They need to be a little more realistic and constructive, otherwise the issue is not going to be solved, " he added.
"We know that Unit 5B is not the right placement for him, and he can't stay there long-term. But it is the only placement that comes near to adequate, and we are gratified that he is receiving top-quality care from the brilliant staff there, and I cannot praise them highly enough," he said.
The practice by the health board of admitting children to the adult psychiatric unit came under fire last year in the annual report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, and the inspector this year repeated his criticism, saying he was "disconcerted" by the continuing admission to the unit of children under 16.
The boy's father said: "The reality is that our son is going to need secure residential care for the rest of his life. We kept him at home as long as we could and we could no longer physically manage him."
The Labour Party's spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said yesterday: "It is quite shocking that a young boy in a rich country in the 21st century should be in what is now a semi-permanent arrangement where he is being cared in an adult psychiatric unit."
She said: "It is terribly distressing and grossly unfair, but unfortunately it is not a unique case, and each year the Inspector of Mental Hospitals highlights children being cared for in adult psychiatric units, but nothing appears to be done about it."
Ms McManus added: "The mental health service is the poor relation of the health service, and I believe that children like this boy should have statutory protection to ensure that they are not being cared for in adult psychiatric units and that proper accommodation is provided."
Clare's Independent TD, Mr James Breen, said yesterday it was "a disgrace and a scandal that proper accommodation cannot be found for the boy and puts even more pressure on these unfortunate people".
Reflecting on the prospect of his son's continued care in Unit 5B, the boy's father said: "We feel very, very sad, and it is not something you can ever get over. Of course, we would love to have him back in the home, but we are coming to terms that we can't have him back."
He added: "It has been awfully traumatic, but we have been able to settle into a life that other people would recognise as a normal existence and take for granted. This summer we took his brothers on their first every family holiday. which we couldn't do before."
The boy's father said he had seen improvements in his son's behaviour over the year. "Our son has settled into the setting, and his outbursts are not nearly as frequent," he said.
The boy is now back at his school in Co Clare which he travels to from the unit on a daily basis. A health board spokesman declined to comment yesterday, saying it did not comment on individual cases.
