McCoy report delay - Secrecy becomes an ally of evil

MOST families will know of the great emotional and practical challenges involved in offering the endless support needed by a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister or even a neighbour’s child, born with intellectual difficulties.

The lifelong heartbreak, the unending, spirit-fraying frustration, the sense of injustice and powerlessness are often deepened by an irrational sense of guilt.

Imagine how those anxieties are compounded when a family, utterly physically and emotionally exhausted, arrive at the dreaded point where they must entrust that dependent and loved child to the care of an institution run by strangers.