Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A MOTHER HAS called on the Health Service Executive (HSE) to make more respite care beds available to adults with intellectual disabilities.
Nicola Lawless’ 19-year-old son Ben is profoundly intellectually disabled. He is almost non-verbal, needs 24/7 care and is incontinent.
He received respite once or twice a week until he turned 18 last year.
Nicola (39) said she and her family held talks with the HSE and their respite service provider during the two-year period before Ben turned 18 in order to to plan his transition from using child services to adult ones.
Nicola, who lives in Castleisland in Co Kerry, contracted swine flu earlier this year and ended up on life support after complications arose. She developed pneumonia and her organs started to fail. She was transferred from University Hospital Kerry in Tralee to Cork University Hospital.
The mother-of-four stabilised and said she was told she should spend two months recovering in hospital. However, she had to come home after just nine days to help her husband Gareth look after Ben after they were unable to secure emergency respite care.
‘Appalling’
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this week, Nicola said the situation is “very difficult”.
She said she recently met with two local HSE representatives who were “very sympathetic to the case and very embarrassed they can’t help”.
Nicola said they told her lack of funding is the main reason her family cannot access respite care for Ben. She said she was told the HSE would step in and find emergency care if she died, adding: “It’s just appalling.”
For an organisation of its size, there has to be a way that they can plan better.
Nicola said Ben, her second eldest child, is “lovely, happy and friendly” but requires round-the-clock care, something that is particularly difficult for her since her illness. She can no longer work so Gareth is doing extra hours at the weekend to bring in more money.
I’m physically not able. Ben is a 19-year-old man in every aspect bar mentally.
Nicola said the weekly respite was hugely important to Ben and the rest of the family.
“It was really important for him and us. He wasn’t housebound all the time, he got to go out and about with his peers. It was good for the family too as we got to do things Ben didn’t like. You can’t bring him shopping, for example.”
Health problems
Nicola said the family was offered a home care package but this is not suitable.
Ben is very loud. He screams a lot and does an awful lot of banging when he gets excited, and he gets excited when people come into house. That’s not conducive to me getting any rest.
Nicola said that since her health scare her hair is falling out and she has memory and concentration problems.
“I don’t know what my lung capacity will end up being, I get tired very, very quickly.”
Nicola told us that, when she is not looking after Ben, she spends her time contacting the HSE, politicians and media outlets in a bid to get help for Ben.
TheJournal.ie contacted the HSE, the Department of Health and Finian McGrath, junior minister with responsibility for disabilites, for comment.
A spokesperson for the department told us: “This is a matter for the HSE.”
Lack of funding
The HSE said it cannot comment on individual cases.
In a statement, the body told us there are just 12 beds available in the Kerry area to provide respite services for adults with an intellectual disability. These beds are provided by St John of Gods at The Arches (four beds), Abhaile (two beds), Kerry Parents & Friends at Brook Lodge (three beds), Haven (two beds), Tearmann (one bed) and Glebe (one bed).
The statement noted that the delivery of residential respite services has been impacted by the requirement to comply with Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) standards.
It added that the following issues have also played a role in the decrease in services available:
The HSE said the remaining residential respite services for people with disability remain under pressure due to:
The statement added that the HSE acknowledges the current level of provision does “not meet the need for increased respite facilities”.
The expansion of respite services for people with disabilities is recognised as essential to enable families to continue to care for individuals with disabilities and in particular significant disabilities. The HSE continues to work with agencies to explore various ways of responding to this need.
“For example, we are working closely with Kerry Parents & Friends on the purchase of a property that will eventually be a respite unit for people with disabilities.”
Alternative arrangements
The HSE said that the Cork and Kerry Community Healthcare Organisation “sought additional funding as part of the 2016 estimates for increased provision of residential respite services”.
“However, additional funding provided for disability services was only available to cover increased costs in meeting the Hiqa standards in residential services. There was no funding provided to expand residential respite services.”
The body added that €1 million has been provided nationally for alternative respite services including host family arrangements.
The HSE is continuing to work with the parents group and with service providers to continue to explore all options in relation to the provision of respite for these young adults.
When questioned about respite care services in the Dáil recently, McGrath said the government is “committed to providing services and supports for people with disabilities which will empower them to live independent lives, provide greater independence in accessing the services they choose, and enhance their ability to tailor the supports required to meet their needs and plan their lives”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Enough, FFS!! Enough is enough.
No self respecting human can say this act of pure savagery was done on their behalf.
May the innocent victims of these animals rest in peace.
Tragic event and an awful way to die.
..Glen you don’t perhaps work for a living do you? Your here more than me!
Early retirement Royston
Rocket Science must take a lot out of ya! ;-)
These ‘soldiers’ are brave enough to take up arms and fight for their cause, but too cowardly to come forward and admit responsibility for their actions.
What ” soldiers” are you talking about ?
I’m assuming that those responsible label themselves as ‘soldiers’. I could be wrong, maybe they call themselves something else.
Soldiers don’t do that
Terrorists do !
See my previous comment.
Surely there should be a warning on the third picture down that there are clearly visible human remains!!! These poor people and their families deserve some respect and this picture should be taken down!
Sorry about that, Fiona. That picture wasn’t meant to be there at all.
I’d say its pretty hard to publish a picture by mistake.
..yeah after the Lady spotted it! Bad form guys..
The news has been showing pictures of body’s since yesterday.
Please remove it then.
Hi guys,
The picture was in there by mistake and was removed within minutes.
It was a genuine error on my part and in no way was meant to be exploitative. Had I meant that, I could have used it as the main picture.
Paul
Why would you put a picture of bodies as the main picture?
You visited an article with a subject indicating that it was going to show pictures of a plane crash site where almost 300 people have died and now you are complaining because the pictures show the horrific scene in full?
Wow. Just wow. What did you expect to see when you visited this article?
Have to agree Cupán Tae – the subject matter is grim and while it’s unsettling and harrowing to view such footage, from a journalistic point of view I don’t criticise organisations/media that publish such pictures. It brings home the awful reality of what happened.
@ Cupán Tae
Some people aren’t happy unless they are offended at least once a day.
Why would a family member scroll down through an article that’s headed “In pictures: The MH17 crash site”?
Because the journalism saying is, if it bleeds it leads.” To get more hits on the article or the site, he could have used that photo as the main article image. Obviously he didn’t because it wasn’t intended that way. But some news outlets will do that as the intended purpose.
Do you remember crash plane in Russia, 4 years ago with Polish president Lech Kaczynski and many Polish politicians? It was an accident-they said. Yes, probably it was. But until today Russian government (or president of Russia?) doesn’t want to give back this plane, recorded tape and they don’t want to investigate what really happen there. Please, don’t do the same mistake again-these top Russian politicians understand only the language of straight and power. If all nations cannot speak on the same way-it may happen again. They don’t care about passengers or their families. It would be sad if this tragedy won’t be a good lesson how to speak with Putin. I hope you have no any doubts he supported terrorists on Ukraine land?
Under international laws, nether the Rebels have any right to take the FDRs since they are not a recognised country and since the aircraft was in Ukrainian airspace the Russians have no right to have it.
International law didn’t stop Russia from taking Crimea.
Will this be another Lusitania or pearl harbour ?? If this was indeed Russia , it would have to be proven , they can’t get away with it , then again media convinced us all there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq !!!
They have been steeping up security recently at airports emphasising to charge up your smart devices before flying etc.
Just how exactly do they plan on preventing another one of these? It’s a new level and it’s scary.
It’s not new John, this had happened before & in the Ukraine..
Point taken Royston but it’s still going to cost the passenger as now airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone and use an alternate. What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet. Normally they try and get them coming in to land etc. That’s what I meant.
Also happened in Iraq several years ago, just goes to show no matter how many hoops they make you jump through at security and how many bottles of water they take off you, if someone wants to do something badly enough they’ll always find a way.
John point taken but your assuming it was a deliberate attack?
The airline was allegedly shot down by a very sophisticated missile system designed primarily to take down large NATO bombers during the Cold War..
Perhaps it would be wise for airlines to avoid areas of conflict where these systems are active..
Personally I think this could have been avoided, there was a lot of Anti Aircraft defence systems active in this region over the past few days. Why this was not taken onboard by the relevant air authorities is something we will have to learn over the coming days..
John – “airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone”. I agree. If implemented the vast majority of the Middle East and a large country in Eastern Europe will be no go areas for commercial airlines.
Barry the Iraq event was a smaller shoulder launched missile intent on targeting a western military or commercial aircraft.. To joe public it seems the same but it’s not. The Malaysian Airways aircraft was transitioning the airspace above Ukraine & flying at 10k above ground, well past the capabilities of the best shoulder fired rocket..
Well aware of the facts of that incident thanks, the plane was still shot down by an a$$hole wasn’t it? My point was in reply to John’s original comment on threat levels and preventing things like this i.e. you can’t.
“What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet.”
The Soviet-designed Buk missile system can be used to engage targets at an altitude of up to 85,000 feet depending on the version. Missiles capable of engaging targets at extremely high altitude have existed for over 50 years.
Please remove the picture of the dead bodies. Most news sites have chosen not to show them, I didn’t expect to see it here.
You should see the news sheets
So you went into an article titled MH17 crash site, and complain when it shows the crash site? What did you expect?
Third photo down shows dead bodies, out of respect it should be removed,
They should be given 24 hours to hand over Igor Strelkov or else the world should take over the territory that he is controlling like he was boosting about taking another bird out of the sky just 20 min after the flight crashed
Putin the s***bag had to have armed them so now it is time the world turned it back on russia
We need world leader that are not going to shy away from holding the s***bags that did this to account
Is it normal for an airliner to fly over a war zone?
Apparently is was flying 1000ft above the warzone area. Could only think they did that to save money instead of using fuel to go around it.
Mark, yes on a particularly busy and active flight path linking two continents
Yep! I flew over Iraq (bagdad to be precise, twice between 06 & 09), although the airline removed the names of the city from the onscreen map you could still make out the Euphrates down in the city.. I guess they just didn’t deem the height we were at as a threat..
@ Jason
Think it was 33k feet?
I read it and also heard it on news talk. That’s all.
I mean 1000ft above the air/sky area that is deemed a no flyzone. Not as in flying 1000ft above the ground.
More than that even from the information I saw. No-fly zone extended up to 4,000m while MH17 was at an altitude of 10,000m.
I see. Thank you gentlemen.
Why did Ukraine traffic control tell the Airline to drop its altitude.
This horrific event also raises a question regarding civil aviation routing – why in Gods name are passenger aircraft flying over a war zone in the first place? A major rethink required to protect passenger welfare.
have your say