The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon today (Monday) attended the opening of the Barnahus, One House Project in Galway. Niall congratulated all of those involved in making the pilot scheme happen and called for a nationwide rollout of this multi-agency approach to dealing with victims of child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have long been an advocate of the colocation, or multi-agency approach, which sees all the essential services required by victims of child sexual abuse based in the same building.\u00a0 Providing care and support for victims of child sex abuse while causing the least amount of additional stress and upset is child-centred and it is the right thing to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe roles of the Garda\u00ed, the HSE and Tusla have always been inextricably linked. However, during an Audit of the exercise by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na of the provisions of Section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991, Dr Geoffrey Shannon, the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, found that communication between Tusla and the Garda\u00ed was \u2018superficial and ineffective\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the publication of Dr Shannon\u2019s report, I was delighted to be invited by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone to investigate the multi-agency approach and to take part in the research that proceeded the launch of the One House Project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI travelled with Minister Zappone, Dr Shannon, representatives from An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, Tusla and Officials from Department of Justice to the Rowan Centre in Belfast and MASH in Oxford, England where co-location of services is up and running. A visit was also made to the Child Advocacy Centre (CAC) in the Bronx, New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving been involved since the beginning and seeing this approach in action, I am more convinced than ever that this is the way forward and that the Barnahus, One House Project should be the first of a nationwide rollout to benefit children in all parts of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarnahus is a testament to what can happen when departments come together and commit to delivering for children. Adopting the \u2018dare to share\u2019 outlook allows the agencies of the state to engage openly with the best interests of children always taking priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend those from the Departments of Health; Children and Youth Affairs; and Justice and Equality whose hard work will offer the children in the West access to medical, forensic, Garda, social work and therapeutic services as soon as an allegation is made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a big step towards fulfilling the recommendations of the Ferns Report of 2005 by designing the system to fit the needs of children rather than the other way around. This commitment to co-location and cooperation from all services shows a child-centred approach which is unique up to this point in time, and which we should build on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"