CHILDREN who are in emergency accommodation for longer than six months should be entitled to counselling.
That’s according to Aontú councillor for Limerick, Sarah Beasley, who submitted a motion to Limerick City and County Council asking that funding be made available for professional therapy sessions for children in such circumstances.
This comes as the most recent Housing Department figures showed 237 children living in emergency accommodation in the Mid West.
“The issues that prolonged homelessness is causing and will cause down the line are absolutely seismic,” Cllr Beasley said.
“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.”
Cllr Beasley said that these children “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.”
Cllr Beasley said 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,” she concluded.