Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 November 2013
181. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to Parliamentary Questions No. 200 of 12 June 2013 regarding the national assessment consultation and therapy service, if the information which she undertook to supply is now to hand. [49818/13]
View answerThe Assessment, Consultation and Therapy Service (ACTS) is a national specialised clinical service which has been developed in order to provide multidisciplinary consultation, assessment and focused interventions to young people who have high risk behaviours associated with complex clinical needs.
Progress to Date:
ACTS began operating as a service on the appointment of the national manager in September 2012. The service is led by a management team consisting of the national manager and two heads of discipline and includes psychologists, social workers, speech and language therapists and addiction counsellors. There are psychiatrists working with some of the children and the ACTS team work collaboratively with these professionals. There are now twenty one clinicians in post. Further recruitment is necessary to fill the principal social work position, two speech and language therapists, and an addiction counsellor. The service operates in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
ACTS clinicians are now working in the three special care units. ACTS clinicians work with individual young people and their families and care staff; they also participate in clinical planning and review meetings involving various professionals including social workers from local areas, GALs etc. In addition clinically informed individual therapeutic plans and individual plans have been developed for young people and clinical reports have been prepared which have informed High Court proceedings. Through the development of the ACTS community service, clinicians stay involved with young people to support their transition out of special care units.
ACTS is in the process of rolling out clinical services in the children detention schools in partnership with the national forensic service. In order to make the best use of a limited clinical resource and in line with best practice, all children remanded or committed to the children detention schools will be screened using an evidenced based assessment tool to see if they need to be seen by clinical services. Referrals deemed appropriate will then be made to the clinical team who will meet weekly on campus to review referrals and plan clinical interventions. This new procedure will mean that reports for the courts will focus on the young person's risk of offending as assessed using an evidence based assessment tool rather than reporting on specific mental health issues. In addition the clinicians will focus on providing interventions rather than assessment only services. Training in the use of this assessment has begun and the clinical team now meet on campus every week.
ACTS continue to support people when they transition out of secure settings. In addition some support is provided to young people before they are placed in secure settings. The current criteria for the acceptance of referrals to the community component of ACTS is that the service will work with young people who require multidisciplinary assessment, consultation and therapy services who have been referred to National Special Care Services and have been deemed by the admissions committee to meet the criteria for special care intervention; previously been placed in special care where current clinical needs exceed the threshold of community resources and previously been placed in the children detention schools where current clinical needs exceed the threshold of community resources.
