‘You are made to feel like a parasite sucking out of those around you’

LORRAINE LEAKE gets embarrassed having to fight for her rights to home help and other support services.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) just after the second of her two children was born 11 years ago.

The debilitating neurological disease has restricted her to a wheelchair for the last six years, leaving kids Angela, 12, and Joseph, 11, and her music teacher husband Joe to do most of the housework.

“The children have taken on an adult role, they have to help me with most things, and they make the dinner every evening under my supervision,” said Lorraine.

She has a home help 15 hours a week to assist with some of the everyday jobs that most homemakers do without a thought, like making the beds and clearing the breakfast table. But for two months, she was without this service and spent most of that time ringing health officials trying to get assistance.

“It’s very frustrating because it’s all red tape. I have found it so embarrassing. Between November and January, I have cried so much just trying to get basic needs met and to give the kids a break,” the 36-year-old mother said.

“You are made to feel like a parasite sucking out of those around you. There are so many people supervising and as soon as there are cutbacks, it’s the people working on the ground with those in need who are cut,” said Lorraine from Maryborough Hill in the Cork suburb of Douglas.

There was some good news for Lorraine in the last week, when she was allocated 10 hours a week extra help from the Centre for Independent Living. This will give her a bit more freedom to get out and the reduced pressure should allow Joseph and Angela enjoy themselves with their friends more often.

But Lorraine also feels that the health authorities only moved on her application for this support after she wrote to Health Minister Micheál Martin about her situation.