The Child and Family Agency, Tusla, provides funding to voluntary and community organisations providing relationship, child and bereavement counselling services. These services aim to support people to deal with difficulties they are experiencing in their relationships, to help children whose lives have been affected by parental separation and to support families who have experienced the death of a family member.
Counselling services are widely recognised as very important components within local communities and many already provide much needed support to local Child and Family Services. Counselling services around the country received €6.8m in funding from Tusla in 2014.
The Assessment, Consultation & 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. ACTS also supports other professionals in their ongoing work with young people and their families.
This includes:-
- on-site therapeutic services to young people in secure settings in Ireland (Special Care and the Children Detention Schools).
- support when young people return to community settings to help them to re-engage with mainstream services as appropriate.
- assessment, consultation and/or intervention services in the community for children at significant risk of placement in secure settings.
Tusla works closely with other care providers including the HSE, in respect of access to primary care services, child and adolescent mental health services, disability and other services. Tusla and the HSE have in place both a Memorandum of Understanding and a Joint Protocol for inter-agency collaboration which underpins the provision of these services for children. The purpose of the Memorandum of Understanding is to set out the partnership agreement between the HSE and Tusla to continue pre-establishment levels of service across both organisations. The objective of the Joint Protocol is to specify a pathway and associated responsibilities for children and families whose needs cross between Health Service Divisions and Tusla.
Both the Memorandum of Understanding and the Joint Protocol are subject to regular monitoring and review to ensure that they are working effectively in the best interests of children and families.
Responsibility for policy in relation to the treatment and support for young people with mental health problems and those requiring medical care as a result of self-harm rests with the Department of Health.
