Ms Karen Feeney:

I hope I have understood the Deputy's questions correctly. She can correct me if I am not answering them. At this stage, due to the expansion of the service, we now have two key workers, each of whom probably has an active case load of about 20. We have additional support. People can need more intense supports at different moments in their journey. Much of what is required by young people at the start involves being recognised as homeless. Getting the medical card and the social welfare payment involves overcoming many bureaucratic challenges. Sometimes it is about taking people through that process to ensure they have full access to their entitlements. Much of it can be about helping people who have difficulties with self-regulation and communication. We help them with those kinds of lifestyle issues - how to keep patient in an Intreo office, for example, or how to express their needs to a GP. Such important minutiae are part of the give and take of social care work. There is also the issue of setting goals and ambitions, and getting those kind of wins. The cut and thrust of this day-to-day work is about how to navigate problems and ensure everything is not lost. When young people do not have support, it can be like a game of snakes and ladders in which a few badly chosen words, an ill-judged loss of temper or a missed appointment causes them to go back down the snake again. Our work is about having somebody to accompany people through that journey.