Parents forced to put handicapped children into psychiatric care

SEVERE cutbacks in disability services are wiping out respite and emergency residential care places, forcing parents to place handicapped children in psychiatric hospitals.

NAMHI, the national association for people with intellectual disability, said counselling and assessment and early intervention services had also been hit, as well as places available in training workshops for school leavers.

“We are getting reports from all over of people due to leave special schools with no vocational training available to them.