Child Health
Immunisation
Children & Families Services
Children Residential Service
Social Work
Counselling
Fostering
Childminder Advisory Officer Service
Child Guidance/Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Child Health
Area Medical Teams visit schools in the area to give vaccinations like the MMR, 4-in-1, etc. They also work with Public Health Nurses to check on a child's development from birth onwards, through a series of standard regular checks. Area Medical Officers also play an important role in providing information on vaccines. You can contact the Area Medical Officers at: (021) 492 3885.

Immunisation
Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way of protecting your child against certain diseases. Children and young people in Ireland are entitled to certain vaccinations and immunisation services free of charge. These vaccines are provided by your GP, in hospitals, at Health Centres, at home or at school. For more information on immunisation talk to your GP, Public Health Nurse, call the HSE infoline 1850 24 1850 or visit - www.immunisation.ie

Children & Families Services
Child Care Information Unit (021) 492 3826
Adoption Services (021) 492 7250
Family Centre (021) 492 3302
St. Finbarr's Hospital Fostering (021) 492 3025
Social Work Services, North Lee, Blackpool (021) 492 7000
Preschools North & South Lee (021) 492 3826

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Children Residential Service
The HSE South is required to make available to children who, for a variety of reasons, cannot live at home, accommodation that is suitable in meeting their needs. Most children looked after by the HSE live in family based care arrangements, but others require a degree of structure and care that can only be provided in a residential care setting. Residential care takes many forms, ranging from low support hostel style facilities to Special Care centres, where
children have a high degree of supervision. The HSE South currently operates twelve Residential Centres across Cork and Kerry. Tel: (021) 492 3965

Social Work
The Social Work Team in the Local Health Office is responsible for providing support to children and families in the community. This involves Family Support Services. In cases where children are at risk of harm through abuse, Child Protection Social Workers have an important role in providing care, assessment and follow up to those children and their families, through the Fostering and Child Protection Teams. Tel: (021) 492 7000

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Counselling
Cork Counselling Service
1st Floor, Heron House, Blackpool Retail Park,Cork. Tel: (021) 492 8300

Community Alcohol & Drug Counselling Services
Skibbereen. Tel: (028) 23456

Harbour Counselling
Penrose Wharf, 9.00am to 5pm
Tel: (021) 486 1360 Freephone: 1800 234 116

Fostering
Fostering in Irelandmeans taking care of someone else's child in your own home. Children of all ages need foster care – from birth to late teens. Some children need short-term care; others may need long term care. Some children need to find a home that allows them to stay with their brother or sister. But whatever the circumstances, fostering a child is an incredibly rewarding experience. In an ideal situation, the child placed in foster care will return to his or her own family as soon as this is possible.

Fostering Resource Unit, HSE South, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Douglas Road, Cork. Tel: 021 4923025 Fax: 021 4923040

Childminder Advisory Officer Service
Childminder Advisory Officer’s role:

• To provide a free support system for Childminders caring for 3 or fewer pre-school children.
• To promote voluntary notification of Childminders
• To provide advisory visits to Childminders homes.
• To provide information and training for Childminders
• To facilitate the establishment of local networks of such Childminders
• To provide Childminder Vacancy list for parents

Click here for more information on the Childminder Advisory Service

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Child Guidance/Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Who are we?
We are a specialist service for children up to 16 years of age and their families who are experiencing moderate to severe emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties. There are two teams covering North Lee. These teams are based at City General Hospital, Infirmary Rd.,Cork.

Who is on the team?
The service is multidisciplinary which means there are people from different clinical professions working here including Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology, Social Work, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Clerical Support.

What do we do?
We will do a full assessment of the difficulties you are having and if treatment is needed then this may include time with parents, individual time with children/young people, family time, groups for parents/children and/or medication.

Consultation
We also offer a consultation service to all health professionals, social workers, teachers, family centres and residential care staff. This provides them with an opportunity to discuss children with the team and seek advice. Parents/carers must give consent for the consultation before hand.

Who can refer?
Referrals are accepted from GPs. Referrals are also accepted from senior health professionals (Senior Educational and Clinical Psychologists, Senior Occupational Therapists, Senior Speech and Language Therapists and Principal Social Workers) with the knowledge of the child’s GP.

Confidentiality
To protect the privacy of individuals and families all information is kept confidential within the team. However, there may be a number of services or professionals involved in the care of children and adolescents. Therefore sharing of information might be important to co-ordinate the efforts of professionals involved with children and families. This is only done with parents’/legal guardians’ consent. Confidentiality can be broken when there is a risk of significant harm to self or others, including child protection concerns.

Opening Hours and Emergency Cover
We can be contacted by telephone between 9am and 5pm, from Monday to Friday.

North Lee West & Youghal Tel: (021) 4927864/4927825/26

North Lee East Tel: (021) 4927821/4927822

Clients are seen by appointment only.

An emergency service is provided at the Accident and Emergency Departments of Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital by Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists. Sometimes a young person will require admission to hospital following their presentation to A&E. At other times, follow-up clinic appointments will be scheduled.

Information for Children/Young People
At our service we help children/young people who are worried about something or who are having a problem with things at home or at school.

What we DO?

• We DO listen to what you have to say
• We DO give you the option of talking with a member of the team on your own and also with your family
• We DO use play, art and other activities, so it’s not just talking
• We DO think about the things you are good at and try to help with your worries

What we DO NOT do?

• We DO NOT give injections
• We DO NOT do operations
• We DO NOT criticize you or blame you
• We Do NOT tell other children that you are coming here

Useful websites

www.reachout.com is a web-based resource for young people to find out about mental health difficulties such as anxiety, self-harm, anger and ideas for how to cope.

www.letsomeoneknow.ie is an interactive website developed by the HSE aimed at increasing young people’s awareness about mental health and well-being as well as providing some advice and contact details for support.

www.rcpsych.ac.uk contains useful handouts that are free to download on all kinds of problems (e.g., anxiety, hyperkinetic disorders/ADHD, behaviour problems) under the “mental health info” section.  These leaflets are aimed at teachers, parents and young people.

www.mentalhealth.org.uk contains some excellent publications that can be downloaded free of charge.  Booklets on ADHD, eating disorders, schizophrenia, self-harm and anxiety offer good information and advice to parents and young people.

www.youngminds.org.uk offers information to young people about mental health and emotional well-being

www.spunout.ie The Healthy Mind section provides information on topics such as anxiety, low mood, bullying, exam stress, eating disorders and self-harm

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