Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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1682. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of specialist interviews relating to child sexual abuse completed jointly by social workers and Gardaí for 2015 and 2016, broken down by area and year. [41472/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I have been advised by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency that Tusla does not collect data on the number of joint social work and Gardaí specialist child sexual abuse interviews carried out.

Tusla is currently leading a multi-agency process to implement a national service model for sexual abuse services for children and their families. This process aims to incorporate all resources currently applied to sexual abuse services into a co-ordinated service providing standardised models of best practice with national and multi-agency oversight. It integrates and co-ordinates the six separate sexual abuse services which children may need to access. These services include medical/forensic examination; child protection; Garda investigation; assessment; therapy and court process. The agencies involved in this process are Tusla, the HSE, the Children’s Hospital Group, the Probation Service and CARI (a voluntary based organisation). The model is informed by the recommendations of the Ferns Report 2005 and the National Review of Sexual Abuse Services for Children and Young People, June 2011 (HSE/Mott McDonald).

Where children have suffered sexual abuse, therapy services are available in a variety of settings. There are specialist sexual abuse centres at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin and Temple Street Children’s University Hospital. The HSE, Tusla and CARI along with others, provide counselling, therapeutic and family support to children who have been abused sexually.

Therapy services are also provided by HSE community based psychologists and the HSE Child And Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for children who have moderate to severe mental health problems. Tusla, along with other agencies, provides counselling and support to children who have been abused sexually. If a child is taken into care as a result of sexual abuse, the allocated social worker in Tusla will provide counselling and support.