Seanad debates

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Health Services for People with Intellectual Disabilities: Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of Mary MoranMary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. She is very welcome and is a regular visitor. I would also like to thank the Leader, Senator Cummins, because this is a debate for which I have asked for several months. I am delighted that we have the opportunity to discuss this. There are many areas that need to be addressed when we speak about services for people with intellectual disabilities, many of whom were mentioned by my colleagues. Every time we have a debate, something else comes up. I would like to use the time we have to stress the importance of providing proper and adequate supports for people with an intellectual disability.

I acknowledge the Government's current funding of €1.5 billion to the disability services programme, through the HSE's national service plan for 2015. I welcome the money allocated. My colleague read out a list of the numbers of people who benefit from it, but when one considers the numbers and the amount of funding, one finds we still have a long way to go. I recognise that the Minister of State listens and puts in the effort, but we need to keep pushing on this issue.

According to the last census in 2011, more than 500,000 people had a disability, including physical and intellectual. More than 57,000 people suffered from an intellectual disability and difficulties with learning, remembering or concentrating were experienced by a further 137,000 people. Some 96,000 people had a psychological or emotional condition. All of those people come under the category of needing extra supports.

I refer to residential respite support. There were 190,000 overnights, which is great, but one when considers how many people are trying to access it, it is a drop in the ocean. I do not mean that disrespectfully but rather that we need to keep pushing the issue. I would like to address the issue of respite care for people with intellectual disabilities in my area, and I will not apologise for it. It was one of the reasons I asked for this debate. I thank the Minister of State for accepting my invitation to come to Dundalk last week and for taking the time to visit various centres for people with disabilities in the area. She met and spent a lot of time with people, service providers and service users - a term I hate. She listened to them very intently.

One of the places we visited was the Maria Goretti respite centre in Lordship. The Minister of State was very impressed, as she was with all of the places she visited. The centre is very impressive. The facilities and the work of the staff and the board which run it are excellent. The respite centre caters for children aged under 18 with an intellectual disability and is a model for respite centres throughout the country. However, as was explained to the Minister of State, before the centre opened last year there was no respite centre for children under 18 years of age in the Louth area, and only a tiny number of children received respite care from our neighbours in Meath. Those who were under the care of St. John of God had access to some care.

I welcome the direction in which we are going. It will not matter where a child lives or to what school he or she goes; he or she will be able to access care. It is a problem I have come up against. The respite centre I mentioned is only up and running thanks to the dedication, financial support and forward vision of one family in the area. They deserve credit for their work in the community as do the HSE, which funded the centre, and RehabCare, which manages it.

There are reports on progress in facilities, but the proof of the success is when one hears from the people directly involved. The Minister of State heard from parents during her visit last week how vital respite services are to get a night's sleep, give time to other members of a family or simply have time, as one mother said, to have a cup of tea in peace. At the moment, the respite service is not being used to its full capacity. I again ask that priority in funding be allocated when budget funding is being discussed for centres like the Maria Goretti centre in Lordship so that they can be used to their full potential. It is too good a service not to be in place and I would love to see it rolled out all over the country.

That brings me to the subject of adult respite. Again, I am speaking based on my experiences. I am the secretary of Dundalk Parents and Friends of the Intellectually Disabled. The other night I wrote up notes from a recent meeting and came across minutes from a meeting held in 1994 - the previous secretary held fantastic minutes. The minutes recorded an urgent need for a respite house for adults in County Louth. When I read the minutes from our last meeting in 2015, I found not a whole lot had changed in Louth.

Recently, as I made the Minister of State aware, the local St. John of God respite centre closed its doors for five weeks to provide upskilling and training. One of my colleagues mentioned HIQA inspections and preparation for them. Rumours abounded about whether it had been in. For whatever reason, the decision to close the centre was made very suddenly and parents and family members were devastated. I was inundated with questions. The closure affected only 58 people, but they were decimated by the news. Rumours circulated about whether it would reopen.

I have received confirmation that it will reopen next week, but I am very disappointed that the CEO of St. John of God in the country declined to meet me about the matter on several occasions. When I contacted the local HSE office, it made no comment on the matter. It is not good enough. If the HSE funds services, we need to have transparency, to know what is happening and whether services can decide suddenly to close for five weeks with nobody taking responsibility. When we ask questions and issues are brought to its attention, we deserve answers.

We are now approaching summer and children will be out of care for some months. Summer camps for special needs children are a vital part of their summer. It is something that needs to be addressed to ensure that all children can have access to them. Summer provision depends on a diagnosis. Summer camps are not very expensive to run and are beneficial for children. Some children will sit for three months with nothing to do.

I refer to psychological services, an issue which I have raised before.People with an intellectual disability are seriously lacking this service. I have constantly brought up the lack of a psychiatrist for children in my own area of County Louth. The situation is replicated all over the country. I recently had a meeting with HSE officials to discuss the filling of the position, and they say they have got to the second round, they can offer the post but they just cannot get the person. Is it a salary issue, as has been reported? Why can we not bring people in? As a teacher, I had pupils who did psychology, psychiatry and occupational therapy and are now working abroad. Why can we not hold onto them? Let us get them back by making the package more enticing. It has to be remembered that people with an intellectual disability have a rate of mental illness that is approximately five times higher than among the general population.

We have mentioned speech and language services for children as well as occupational therapy, and these services are seriously lacking. Can we do something to help? Can we take a cross-departmental look at some areas? I am doing a study at the moment of the role of special needs assistants, SNAs, in schools. I am not saying they could in any way replace occupational therapists, but could they be doing something that would help?

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