A care leaver has said that years of trauma and abuse living in the system is causing an addiction and mental health crisis for young people years after leaving it.
'David' - whose name has been changed – entered the care system when he was aged 11 and says that he is still trying to come to terms with the trauma that he experienced growing up and believes there are hundreds of others in Northern Ireland in the same position.
Speaking to Belfast Live, the 25-year-old highlighted the issues facing care leavers as they transition to living independently and how he believes the support services in place are setting people up to fail.
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He said that most people he grew up with in care suffered with some form of addiction or mental health issue, with some passing away as a result of this over the past few years.
David said that many care leavers turn to drugs and alcohol as a way of coping with the abuse they experienced in the care system, which included physical, sexual and emotional abuse from staff members and other children living in the home.
He says that during his time in care he would be locked out of the home overnight, not allowed to sleep at times and had the police called on him repeatedly by staff members for things such as not wanting to leave a bedroom or not going to bed on time.
David said: "There is so much that has impacted me through my time in care it is difficult to pinpoint specific incidents because it felt like I had one traumatic experience after another from the moment that I entered a care home.
"My mum was in care when she gave birth to my older sibling and it was a very distressing situation for us all whenever me and my siblings were taken from her and forced to relive the same things that she did.
"From the moment I was brought to the care home I was introduced to drugs and alcohol, with them becoming something that most of us would turn to in order to try and ignore the trauma each of us had.
"Throughout my time in the home it felt like it was one thing after another. We would be locked outside all night if we came back too late, no matter what the weather was like, and would spend hours banging on the windows to try and get in.
"There were staff members who would keep us up all night and locked out of our rooms so that we would be easier to control the following day and there were some who would ring the police on us constantly for things as trivial as not going to be on time or not wanting to leave your bedroom.
"I tried to leave and go back to my mum countless times but always ended up back there. It is still difficult to comprehend the trauma that I and others suffered during our time in care and there are still things that I am sure I have blocked out completely."
David says that after leaving care he was put into an apartment and received help to get a job, but found the transition very difficult and due to a lack of money would walk hours to and from work everyday with very little time for sleep.
He said: "Leaving care is another struggle in itself as all of a sudden you are all by yourself and having to live life alone with very little support.
"While I was helped to get a job, I was spending all of my money just trying to survive and was walking everyday from my flat and back for work as I couldn't afford to get the bus.
"During this time I was still trying to manage the trauma that I had suffered in care and it took my years before I was finally able to push through it and become secure in life."
David says that he remains in touch with some of the people who he was in care with and they all suffer with the same issues that all stem from their time in the system. He says that mental health issues, self harm and addiction are all common and there are very little services available to support care leavers dealing with these.
He said: "There is not one person who I know from my time in care that is not still dealing with the impact of what happened to us when we were there.
"There will be hundreds if not thousands of people in Northern Ireland who are in the same position. Most of the young homeless around the city centre will have spent some time in care or foster homes and I know many who are struggling with severe addiction issues.
"Some of the recent overdose deaths in the city centre have involved young people who have been failed and countless services and forgotten about.
"There are services they are supposed to rely on for help to live independently that are not using professionals to support care leavers with their mental health or addiction issues, instead employ people who will have been out of the system for a couple of years and expecting them to be able to provide that support to a teenager, which is impossible.
"The most vulnerable young people in Northern Ireland are being set up to fail and nobody is taking any sort of steps to address the problems they face or create a system that will not leave them with lasting trauma."
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