No hospital bed for mentally-ill teen, court told
A mentally-ill teenager was yesterday held in a detention centre because a Dublin hospital did not have a bed for him.
Judge Angela Ní Chonduin made a direction that a representative of the Mater Hospital must attend the teenager’s case to explain what help they could give to him.
The Dublin youth has severe psychiatric problems and had been transferred to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) for treatment, after being remanded in custody earlier this year.
Doctor Claire McInerney, of the CMH, told the court that the teenager had undergone medical treatment and now needed a “step down” placement.
She said the follow on placement should now be provided by his local service, the Mater Hospital, in Dublin.
Judge Ní Chonduin was told, however, that yesterday evening there were no beds for the teenager in the Mater Hospital.
The teenager, now aged 18, but who was 17-years-old when he was charged with criminally damaging his home.
He has a learning disorder and demonstrated signs of schizophrenia and paranoia.
Earlier the court had heard that the teenager had the “interpersonal age equivalence” of an infant aged one year and nine months.
Other assessments have put him on the level of a child aged four.
His arrest came after he torched his family home and decapitated his nephew’s pet turtle and cut one of its legs off in front of him, the court had heard previously.
In February, he was remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison in the hope he would get psychiatric help.
Two months later, he was transferred to the CMH for treatment where he had been until yesterday when he was discharged.
His distraught family attended the case yesterday and were in tears when the judge held that because the teenager had been discharged from the CMH he would have to be returned to a detention centre, because the Mater Hospital did not have a bed for him.
The alternative was to grant bail. However, Judge Ní Chonduin said that she had to bear in the mind the teenager’s own safety and that of others, if he were released.
Concerns were also raised that his family would not be equipped to look after him and if he failed to take his medication he could suffer a relapse.
Judge Ní Chonduin remanded the teenager in custody until tomorrow, and ordered a representative from the Mater Hospital to attend the proceedings to explain what care it could provide for the teenager.
As the case was adjourned his family left the court weeping and upset having indicated in court that they feared the teen should not be held in a detention centre.
