Residential care - Immediate reassurances are needed

YESTERDAY’S report, by Carl O’Brien in the Irish Times, that health officials are investigating hundreds of complaints of mistreatment, abuse or lapses in care standards for people with disabilities in residential settings, will cause very many sleepless nights right across the country.

Every mother and father, sister and brother with a close relative in residential care will feel a chill run down their spine. The perfectly natural concern surrounding the welfare of a child – very often an adult – in care that might have been managed for very many years will, all of a sudden, assume renewed, unsettling proportions.

Because we live in the awful shadow of the Ferns, Ryan and Murphy reports, it will not be easy for those with relatives in care to accept what is probably the reality for the majority – that they live in caring environments where professionalism and human decency combine to provide services that meet high standards.

Surrendering a child, no matter how difficult, no matter how disruptive or aggressive, to residential care may be a huge physical relief but it can be emotionally devastating. Even the longed-for prospect of re-establishing a normal family life and being able to dedicate some time to other children can be overshadowed by the awful wrench of having to place a loved but impossible child in the care of strangers.

There can be few occasions in life when someone is obliged to place greater trust in others but in so many sad, sad cases there is no alternative. You are, after all, asking others to do what you, through no fault of your own, could not do for your own child.

In this context, O’Brien’s report demands an immediate and completely satisfactory response. There is no room for delay or ambiguity, for prevarication or waiting for reports.

The Minister for Health, or the Minister for Justice if needs be, must move immediately to establish whether residential facilities for children or adults with an intellectual disability are fit for purpose. This must happen within weeks, certainly before the end of the month because even imagining that they might not be is utterly unacceptable. If Ms Harney has a list of priorities this subject must remain on it until such time as the relatives of every person in care is reassured that the level of care we all expect is available for their loved ones.

Anything less will cause anxiety and terrible stress that we must all hope is unfounded.

If even a fraction of the complaints are upheld, we will be angry with our Government – again – but surely the time has come for all of us to accept more responsibility on this, and so many other similar issues.

One of the dodges used to soften the shame and hurt of the Ferns, Ryan and Murphy reports was that we claimed that we did not know what was going on in the residential homes. That excuse, if it ever was, is no longer acceptable. If we do not know what is going on in today’s facilities today, we must find out and act accordingly. It is the very least we must do.