Suitable placement still sought for teenage girl who has refused food for 29 days, High Court told

An appropriate placement has yet to be found for a vulnerable teenage girl who has been refusing food for the past 29 days, the High Court has heard.

The girl remains in a “completely undesirable situation” in a hospital acute unit, her court-appointed guardian, barrister Donal Ó Muircheartaigh, said

The Health Service Executive may seek to have the girl made a minor ward of court but that has not yet happened because “things are fluid” and efforts are continuing to find a suitable place and a solution other than wardship, said Katherine Kelleher, solicitor for the HSE.

The matter was before the High Court eight times in September and was mentioned again before Mr Justice Alexander Owens on Thursday. He was told there had been some developments, including Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, agreeing to take the girl into voluntary care of the State.

The judge was told the girl and her parents have a difficulty about her residing with them, there have been many meetings about her situation and there would be a further inter-agency meeting on Friday.

Mr Ó Muircheartaigh said the girl had been refusing food for 29 days and there were issues of self-harm. He would be seeking directions next week for an “interim, robust, intensively supported placement” to take her out of an acute medical environment until a longer-term placement was found.

When the judge asked: “Where?”, counsel replied that was a matter for the HSE.

The girl has significant attachment needs and an assessment would identify how she functions and the level of supports she required, he added.

Ciarán Craven SC, with Aoife Mulligan, for Tusla, said significant work was being done to try and advance matters.

The judge said it was not that there was any absence of goodwill but the situation had to “move on”.

David Leahy SC, for the girl’s mother, said she wanted her daughter to be taken into voluntary State care and Tusla’s position had shifted from declining to do that to accepting it would. Jessica Kelleher, for the girl’s father, also supported her being taken into voluntary care.

Listing the matter for hearing on Tuesday, the judge said he hoped a solution would be found by then.