HSE transfers are ‘retrograde step’

PEOPLE with intellectual disabilities living in HSE residential homes are being forced to live in overcrowded houses with no therapeutic services or treatments, it has been claimed.

Áras Attracta in Co Mayo provides residential care for 116 adults with intellectual and physical disabilities, as well as respite for the elderly.

Cutbacks, however, mean people with no challenging behaviour will be moved to live in severe challenging behaviour units, and people with a mild intellectual disability will be transferred to profound units.

Noel Giblin, western regional representative with the Psychiatric Nurses Association, said it was “heartbreaking” for staff to watch people regress due to cutbacks. Mr Giblin said people were “merely being housed” and the level of care was non-existent.

“We have no psychotherapist, no social worker, no behavioural therapist. We have 10 people in one bungalow with one staff member.”

Mr Giblin expressed disbelief as it had emerged in the past few days that the decision on who would move was to be taken by pulling names out of a hat.

“These are people who have been living almost independently and now they will have to take a bed wherever there is one – it could be in a unit with people who have very challenging behaviour and who have to be locked in, meaning they will too.

“The rights of the clients are being totally neglected and the decision is based on no professional input.

All of this goes totally against best practice.”

Mr Giblin said the people living in Áras Attracta were simply being housed – and even that was not to an acceptable standard.

Ten days ago staff at the service brought the issue to the Labour Relations Committee, as the bungalow was due to shut, delaying it for two weeks.

A spokeswoman for Inclusion Ireland said it was a “retrograde step.”

“Unfortunately, there is no one for residents to bring a complaint forward to and there is nowhere they can have their voice heard.

“The term ‘residential service’ is bandied about a lot: these bungalows are the homes of those who live there. If tenants in social housing had their homes closed down on cost grounds and were moved to other houses to share with people they do not know or choose to live with, there would be public outcry, and rightly so.

“So why is it acceptable that this can happen to people with an intellectual disability?”

The HSE said clients would be housed throughout the complex in accommodation that is deemed suitable to meet their needs.