Home help and respite services ‘in crisis’

AN elderly woman who is a double amputee cannot leave hospital due to a shortage of home help providers.

‘The lady who has had her two legs removed, and is wheelchair-bound, has been in hospital for weeks,’ said Michael Collins TD. ‘She wants to go home but she and her family have been told that there is no home help support.’

He said the lack of home help, as well as the lack of respite care for people with intellectual and physical disabilities, has reached ‘nightmare levels’ and that the service is now in crisis.

Another woman, Mary McCarthy (69) from Glengarriff, and her husband Daniel have had ‘a very tough education’ in caring for the needs of their brain-damaged son over the last 36 years, and have never yet received respite.

‘Respite for me and my husband doesn’t come into it,’ said Mary. ‘I never got respite. We have only been away twice since we got married 45 years ago. We are getting home help Monday to Friday, both morning and evening, and one weekend a month, but we have to pay €160 privately to get the help we need on the other weekends,’ said Mary, who is in receipt of a €137 carer’s allowance and is appealing to the HSE to provide weekend home help for her son.

‘It is physically difficult to mind Conor,’ she said. ‘We have a hoist and we are well set up for his comfort and care, but I am fighting for weekend support.’

Eileen Murphy (68) from Bandon has twin daughters, aged 31, both are autistic. She said one is attending day services in Bandon with the Brothers of Charity and the other works ‘an integrated approach’ and is living independently and is still supported by the Bandon service. ‘My problem, and the problem of other parents, is getting respite. I have been told there is no respite at weekends because they can’t get the staff.’

Eileen, who has a husband with Parkinson’s and a son with Asperger’s, needed to go to hospital in January because she developed cellulitis and the doctors were afraid of sepsis. In the end, she said, she couldn’t go to hospital because one of her daughters won’t stay with anyone else, and she could not get emergency respite care for her daughter.

The only place her daughter will go is to a facility at Garrylucas, but Eileen said the 14-bed home only provides four beds at a time, due to staff shortages.

‘I do get respite every 13 weeks for one of my daughters, but I couldn’t get emergency respite,’ said Eileen, who described the situation as very frustrating and upsetting. ‘I didn’t know if I was going to live or die. I just had to get on with it,’ she said, ‘and it was good friends who helped me and brought me to appointments.’

Deputy Collins (Ind) said the recent closures of services have left hundreds of families without essential care. At present there are only 15 respite beds available for children with disabilities in Cork.

He said the number of national overnight respite sessions dropped to 120,000 in 2022, from 160,000 in 2019.

‘The respite care system is going backwards, and dragging parents and vulnerable adults and children with it,’ he said. ‘It is pushing people to the breaking point, and for some, it’s a living nightmare.’