Daughter ‘heartbroken’ over lack of help for her family

A FATHER and daughter have had to turn their living room into a makeshift hospital ward.

But it is the lack of home help support that is causing the greatest hardship for the O’Shea family of Mariner’s View in Castletownbere.

Sharon O’Shea – sister of Grace (40), and the daughter of Martin (79) and Sarah (80) – is furious about the lack of State assistance.

‘My family is a prime example of un-met needs,’ she said this week.

‘Living at home are my elderly parents. My father, who suffers from dementia and is recovering from a broken leg, and my mother, who suffers from arthritis of the spine and is often doubled over.

‘They are the caretakers of my sister, who is deaf and almost blind, and suffers from neurofibromatosis.’

All three have been approved for home help care, but Sharon said the HSE has been unable to provide the service due to the lack of staff.

‘My father and sister currently share a makeshift bedroom in the sitting room with no access to a full bathroom on the ground floor,’ she said.

More than a year ago, the HSE approved 26 hours for Grace, but they could only fill 10 hours – two hours a day, over five days – and that is only available during the school term, so has now stalled.

At the beginning of this year, Martin was approved for home help for three mornings a week after he was discharged from a hospital in Cork, where he was treated for a broken leg.

But the home help never materialised, according to his daughter.

More than a month ago, Sharon’s mother was approved for two mornings a week after she was released from hospital, where she was treated for both a kidney and a chest infection. These hours haven’t been filled either.

Sharon is back in Beara this week, on holiday from her own busy life, living and working in New York with her husband and two children.

She said her family is receiving excellent GP care from their local doctor Fiona Kelly, but Sharon is struggling to comprehend how a family with such dire needs can be neglected by the healthcare system.

Sharon said her siblings do what they can to help, but with jobs and children of their own, they are extremely busy.

‘I understand that the problem is primarily due to the lack of staff but why isn’t something being done to attract more workers?’ she asked.

The family is also seeking grant approval from the local authority to install a chairlift so Martin and Grace can access the bathroom on the second floor.

‘They need help,’ said Sharon, who is agonising over the fact that she is due to return to the US next week. ‘I am heartbroken at the thought of leaving them.’ 

Cork Kerry Community Healthcare (CKCH) told The Southern Star: ‘We are very sorry to hear of this family’s difficulty, however we are obliged to protect the privacy of service-users and cannot comment on individual cases.

‘As of June 2023,’ the CKCH spokesperson said, ‘the number on the waitlist for Homecare Support Assistants (HCSAs) in Cork is 1,236. All of those waiting are awaiting carer availability – it there are no clients waiting for funding to be approved.

‘The only reason people are waiting,’ she added, ‘is the availability of staff. When new staff are recruited, they are prioritised for areas where the demand is greatest.’