Barnahus East Service

The teams from the Laurels Clinic, St. Louise’s Unit and St. Clare’s Unit along with CEO Eilish Hardiman attended the launch of the Inception Report for a Council of Europe project on “Barnahus Ireland: Supporting the Implementation of the Barnahus model in Ireland”.

The Barnahus model brings together child protection, policing, medical and therapeutic agencies to provide an interagency response to child sexual abuse. The model is based on the Icelandic “Barnahus” model and has a commitment by the Department of Justice, Health and Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth, to provide this interagency model in 3 sites in Ireland. The model has been piloted in the West since 2019, and centres in the South and East are in the planning and development stage.

The event held was in Farmleigh on 30th January and was opened by Minister for Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, who launched the report of the initial work carried out by the Council of Europe, which is co-funded by the EU Structural Reform Support Programme. The key speakers at the event were Daniele Dotto, Deputy Director for Support to Member State Reforms at DG REFORM, European Commission; Irena Guidikova, Head of Children’s Rights and Sports Values Department, Council of Europe and concluding remarks were given by Minister for Justice, Simon Harris.

A working meeting in the afternoon brought together over 100 professionals from Tusla, An Garda Síochána, HSE and CHI, who are involved at varying levels with the Barnahus work in Ireland. Presentations were made by Aoife O’Malley (Barnahus West Manager), Aideen Walsh (Chair of Barnahus East Steering Group and RANP, Laurels Clinic, CHI at Tallaght) and Fiona Geraghty (Barnahus South Manager) on progress to date in each of the 3 sites. Eimear Lacey (Principal Social Worker, St Louise’s Unit, CHI at Tallaght) presented findings from her research study.

Children’s Health Ireland is the lead agency for the planning and development phase for the Barnahus East service. Staff from Laurels Clinic, St Louise’s Unit and St Clare’s Unit, are committed to developing the service in the East of Ireland and have been to the forefront of the work in recent years.

“I was delighted to attend the launch of the Inception Report for the Council of Europe project. It’s a very exciting time for CHI. Staff from the 3 services (Laurels Clinic and St Louise’s & St Clare’s Units) in CHI eagerly await the progress of Barnahus East, and look forward to engaging with colleagues in Tusla, An Garda Síochána and HSE to offer an interagency response for the children and families they care for.” — Aideen Walsh (Chair of Barnahus East Steering Group and RANP, Laurels Clinic, CHI at Tallaght)