Children who are in emergency accommodation for longer than six months should be entitled to counselling.
That’s according to Aontú Cllr Sarah Beasley who has submitted a motion to Limerick City and County Councils asking that funding be made available for professional therapy sessions for children.
Cllr Beasley says
“The issues that prolonged homelessness are causing and will cause down the line are absolutely seismic.
“These children are extremely vulnerable and really their development is being arrested. They have no security, they have no privacy, they can’t invite others round for play dates, sleepovers, the normal things that children do”.
“They may have to travel long distances to school and this is just so distressing for them”.
“They feel shame, they feel different, they feel ‘othered’ which will often carry through to their adult lives. This stigma sadly can’t but leave indelible marks. The terrible insecurity that living in homeless accommodation causes will most likely result in attachment issues and other psychological issues for these unfortunate children”.
These children need a professional ear to help them navigate their feelings safely, and I passionately believe that counselling is the only way forward in the interim to try and help them make sense of the terrible situation they’re in, through absolutely no fault of their own.
By its very nature emergency should mean emergency, not a protracted and wholly unsuitable arrangement.
To think that there are 4,775 children homeless in Ireland is a shocking shame.
It is a stain on our country, but tragically the stain will remain with those poor children who are traumatised by their experience.
They won’t be able to easily forget the turmoil and vulnerability of homelessness and having to stay in emergency accommodation”.
