Fears for lives of teen addicts over funding failure

Documents obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act show that at least €800,000 was allocated to the HSE and rubber-stamped by the Department of Health for the treatment of under-18s with drug problems at the SASSY (Substance Abuse Services Specific to Youth) project in north inner city Dublin.

However, the money was not used to fill the 11 staff positions envisaged in the plan for the service, and the Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at SASSY, Dr Gerry McCarney, has said he fears children will die unless additional staff are provided.

SASSY, which has a responsibility for treating drug-abusing children in north Dublin, dealt with 65 new clients last year, the youngest of whom was just 12 years old.

"I think it is only a matter of time before someone attending our service dies," said Dr McCarney, who with a part-time colleague deals directly with clients.

"I know it is a time of recession, but we are talking about a relatively small amount of money for a team to cover half the city in which there is a quarter of the population."

He said he was merely "fire-fighting" and, even in the most pressing cases, clients can only be seen every few weeks, heightening risks to their safety.

"We have had multiple situations where people attending us have ended up in A&E — things like hangings, cuttings, overdoses," he said, adding that if new staff are not provided "the waiting lists will just get bigger and bigger, it could take people a year to see us and that is going to be a major problem".

Documents show that €800,000 was allocated to the HSE and sanctioned by the Department of Health as part of its 2007 budget. The money was not paid to SASSY. On Friday the HSE said it had been spent on "a range of homeless service projects".

In a separate FOI application response, the Department of Health’s Risk Register admits: "There is a department-wide risk that development funding allocated to the HSE might not be used for the purpose for which it was originally intended."

Source: Noel Baker and Paul O’Brien, The Irish Examiner, 27/04/2009