Resident at disability centre jumped from bedroom window, report finds

A relief staff member at a centre for people with disabilities had to ring emergency services after receiving no answer to their calls for help.

A relief staff member at a centre for people with disabilities had to ring emergency services after receiving no answer to their calls for help while on a separate occasion a resident had jumped from their bedroom window and fallen to the ground.

A Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) inspection of Sylvan Services, run by Ability West in Galway and home to seven residents, found a string of non-compliances with standards, as well as indications of "unexplained absences" and a lack of appropriate education for residents displaying inappropriate sexual behaviours.

The Hiqa risk inspection followed an earlier serious incident in the centre and found significant improvements were required in the management of the service.

"The inspector saw clear evidence of this when an emergency situation occurred in the centre the night before the inspection," the report said. 

The relief staff member received no answer to their calls for help, consequently, the staff member had to call the emergency services for support. 

"The person in charge told the inspector that there was no response to the staff's calls for help, as is no actual on-call support arrangements in place in Ability West from 5pm to 9am each evening/night from Monday evening until Friday morning."

An annual review had found there were 124 incidents (excluding Covid-19 notifications) in the past year, 92 of which involved various degrees of risk-related to behaviours of concern, but the annual review did not identify these risks in the action plan.

The person in charge did not notify the chief inspector within three days of adverse incidents occurring in the centre as required by the regulations, including several incidents reported in the records of "unexplained absences of a resident from the designated centre, and incidents of allegation of suspected or confirmed abuse between peers".

In addition, a resident known to be a high risk for absconding had jumped out their upstairs bedroom window and fell to the ground. 

While window restrictions were placed on all of the windows in the centre, a review of the resident's individual risk assessment showed that the identified risk of falls and absconding was rated a low risk, "even though records showed that the resident continued to make attempts to leave the house unsupervised".

Other incidents of concern, such as residents "shouting for long periods of time in the centre, banging doors and disturbing other residents, entering other residents bedroom without permission, and exhibiting inappropriate behaviours towards others", had also not been adequately addressed.

Hiqa issued a compliance plan to address shortcomings at the centre.