Cork mother appeals for residential care for disabled son as family 'in crisis'
Chantelle Healy, from Hollyhill, with her son, Arthur.
A Cork mother has appealed to the HSE to provide residential care for her 15-year-old son, who has severe disabilities, saying her family is in crisis and he is a danger to himself and other members of the household without appropriate intervention.
Chantelle Healy, from Hollyhill, told the that respite care for her son, Arthur, has also been withdrawn. She said gardaí have been called to the family home on several occasions as the teenager has become increasingly violent.
Sinn Féin TD for Cork North-Central Thomas Gould said he has been seeking assistance from the HSE for the family for the past month but has received no substantive response other than being told the query was being dealt with.
The HSE also told Mr Gould’s office that agreed response timelines were in place after it requested the case be prioritised because the “situation is becoming dangerous”.
Arthur was born in January 2011 with schizencephaly and hydrocephalus following a stroke in the womb, which resulted in a brain haemorrhage. Schizencephaly is a rare brain malformation that has resulted in Arthur having only around one-third of his brain, while hydrocephalus is a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain's ventricles.
Ms Healy said doctors told her Arthur would be “physically and mentally handicapped”.
She said he began walking when he was five years old and is able to communicate only using single words.
However, Ms Healy said Arthur has become increasingly violent as he has grown older.
She said she is 5ft 3in, while Arthur is 5ft 7in, adding that being assaulted by him is “like being beaten by a man”.
“When he comes back from school, I'm absolutely shivering,” she said.
“I am petrified of my own child coming home from school, because I don’t know what way he’s going to come home.”
Ms Healy secured respite care for Arthur last year. His first overnight stay was in December, followed by two further overnight stays. However, she said that during his fourth overnight stay he had a “meltdown but didn’t harm anyone”.
Arthur has not received respite care since and is now prescribed lorazepam, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety.
Ms Healy said gardaí have attended the family home several times when Arthur became violent. On one occasion, she said, she was told gardaí could detain him under Section 12, but she declined after being told they could not guarantee he “will not be housed with adults using drugs and hiding weapons”.
“I don’t want to put my child into residential [care], but I know I have to for me, for him, and for his brother,” she said.
“It isn’t even a life; Me and Arthur are just existing.”
Ms Healy applied for a residential placement for Arthur in February but said she has received no response from the HSE.
Mr Gould’s office first contacted the HSE on June 18. When no response was received by June 24, a follow-up email was sent.
The HSE replied on June 26, saying it was “requesting a response as soon as possible” from services in the South West.
When no response had been received by July 1, Mr Gould’s office warned that the need for residential care was now “urgent”.
On July 6, the HSE again said it was “requesting a response as soon as possible”.
On July 10, Mr Gould’s office informed the HSE that gardaí had been at Ms Healy’s home for two hours and that the “situation is becoming dangerous”.
The HSE said the query had been brought to its attention on June 22 and that the agreed response timeframe was 15 working days.
On July 13, the HSE stated that the “head of disability services has received a comprehensive report on this case but is awaiting one final bit of information before responding”.
Mr Gould told the the Healy family was in “crisis” and that no meaningful response had yet been received from the HSE.
“I'm a month trying to get an answer out of the HSE for a family that's in crisis. That's not good enough,” he said.
A spokesperson for HSE South West said “every effort goes into sustaining a child within the family environment before residential placements are considered”.
The spokesperson said there are 19 children in residential placements in Cork city, with no vacant beds. Of the 350 people requiring placement, nine are children.
“It is not always possible to map a definitive timeframe for allocation of a placement,” they added.
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