More community garda\u00ed and greater resourcing of local mental health services are key to building community safety, according to a new report.<\/p>\n
The study, conducted by University of Limerick, also said there was a pressing need to invest in community development organisations and youth groups.<\/p>\n
The report, entitled \u2018Hidden Voices\u2019, looked at the experiences of marginalised communities, including asylum seekers and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and mental health issues, as well as the homeless, the LGBTQ+ community, and Travellers.<\/p>\n
Researchers spoke to 21 people, from 16 organisations, working in these areas, as well as representatives from An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and the HSE.<\/p>\n
Resources were a constant issue among participants: \u201cAll services were noted to be under pressure due to increased demands, and the point was made that the garda\u00ed do not have the resources they need to manage all such demands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One participant said: \u201cWe call the guards to the scene \u2026 we don\u2019t always get them. And that\u2019s not because they\u2019re hanging around, that\u2019s because, like us, they\u2019re busy \u2026 it\u2019s because they\u2019re tied up as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Participants identified the need for additional community garda\u00ed, acknowledgement persons with disabilities had additional safety needs, and the resourcing of appropriate mental health services, the report said.<\/p>\n
On mental health services on the ground, one participant said: \u201cThe mental health services in Ireland are a big problem for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na. And this is why people with mental health end up in the criminal justice system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others highlighted cuts to community groups and youth organisations during austerity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity development organisations were wiped out during austerity. Youth work was defunded by a third, and the youth population has grown\u201d and \u201cthere are youth workers in the country, but not enough”.<\/p>\n
Participants said community leaders, educators and garda\u00ed needed to understand trauma and its impact on people.<\/p>\n
The report said: \u201cIt was also suggested that training for garda\u00ed should include topics such as mental health, neurodiversity, diversity, cultural awareness and human rights in the context of complex situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said there was a need for more joint collaboration between garda\u00ed and the HSE.<\/p>\n
Participants also stressed the need for accountability from agencies and departments.<\/p>\n
One contributor said: \u201cThe only agency that is going to have their input into community safety overseen is the Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na. None of the other agencies \u2026 have that same extent of accountability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The principal researchers were Professor Colum Dunne, head of UL\u2019s School of Medicine and Professor Gautam Gulati, adjunct clinical professor at UL\u2019s School of Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More community garda\u00ed and greater resourcing of local mental health services are key to building community safety, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[165294,102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-459400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-gardai","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}