Cut in respite aid for intellectually disabled ‘devastating’

A REDUCTION in home support hours and respite services will cause untold hardship for parents of intellectually disabled children and will lead to greater institutionalisation of the intellectually impaired, according to the head of the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies.

The federation’s chief executive Brian O’Donnell, said the combined effect of budget cuts and the moratorium on staff recruitment meant some group homes no longer had sufficient staff to run a service, forcing their closure. This lead to the amalgamation of residents of a number of homes, compromising quality of life, Mr O’Donnell said.

“For instance if we lose two or three staff in a home because someone retires or takes leave, those people cannot be replaced and you could end up closing a home that had catered for four people and moving them into a home where another four people already live.

“People have reduced personal space and it can lead to challenging behaviour and difficulties for staff, something that isn’t captured in the statistics. The effect is to move back towards greater institutionalisation at a time when we are supposed to be moving away from it,” Mr O’Donnell said.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) – which funds the voluntary care agencies – has, according to Mr O’Donnell, taken €15 million more than was agreed from the intellectual disability budget.

Yesterday on RTÉ radio, parents whose children avail of respite services provided by the Daughters of Charity in Dublin and the Brothers of Charity in Galway described the impact of reduced services as “devastating”.

Ann Kennelly, the HSE’s national lead for disability services, said the HSE did “not necessarily accept” that funding reductions meant service reductions and that there were alternative ways of saving money, such as on backroom staff, or ending duplication across agencies, and that the HSE was in talks with the voluntary agencies about how to achieve greater value for money.

However Mr O’Donnell said this was a “red herring”; that administration staff had already been cut to the core and that agencies needed a basic administration service to function.

He said unlike the hospital sector, the intellectual disability sector “did not have the wherewithal to close a ward” in order to save money. He also said the HSE was aware agencies had been progressing the idea of shared services, “both in the back office and clinical”.

He also questioned why, unlike the area of childcare, vital therapy posts were not being filled in the intellectual disability sector.