Urgency of providing respite facilities in Meath highlighted at council meeting

A CALL by Meath families for the “urgent” provision of respite services for adults with intellectual disabilities within the county came under renewed debate at a meeting of the county council earlier this month.

A respite service for Co Meath was an urgent need and was “well overdue”, the council heard. Councillors were debating correspondence from the Midlands Louth Meath Community Health Organisation in response to a notice of motion calling for the respite service and which was passed at the April meeting of the council.

Des O’Flynn, chief officer of the health body wrote that the overnight centre-based respite target for Meath was 3,385 nights per annum from a total national target of 85,336 nights, about 3.7 per cent of the national target.

He said that the HSE national service plans for the last two years had included additional investment in respite services to reflect the need to further develop these services, both centre-based respite and other respite options including home sharing, Saturday clubs, etc.

Mr O’Flynn said that services continued to be impacted by Covid, affecting staffing levels. Meath Disability services provided residential respite to adults and children with disabilities from the following locations – Na Driseoga Navan (adult services, 6 beds); Clann Mor Navan (adult, 5 beds); Talbot Group, Balbriggan (adult, 3 beds, shared with Louth); RehabCare Navan (children, 5 bed).

Meath Disability services also provided alternative home-share models of respite, non-residential outreach; respite home support services, and day respite clubs.

The Meadows Navan provided access to residential respite to 59 children and 15 young adults. In the last quarter of 2021 they provided 207 bed nights and 97 day-only respite.

Mr O’Flynn said that €50,000 non-residential respite funding had been allocated in 2018 to develop alternative respite services such as community respite and weekend clubs in Meath. The Horizons weekend club started in January 2019 and offered non-residential respite for 14-21 year olds in Navan on Friday evenings and Saturday. Thirty-eight children had used this service and there were 21 people waiting to commence this service. The service was currently on hold because of Covid.

There are a total of 168 people accessing adult residential respite services in Meath – HSE 79, Clann Mor 67, Bower House 22, with 50 on waiting list for same. He added that the waiting time for access to adult residential services can be three/four years due to demand and the impact of Covid.

Seventy-nine adults access residential respite at na Driseoga Navan and there are 34 adults on the waiting list there. 67 adults access services at Clann Mor, with 16 waiting. There are currently 22 adults accessing residential respite at the Balbriggan location.

“Given the growing demand for respite services and the current knowledge that a further approximately 206 clients who are turning 18 in the next three years, the Midlands Louth Meath body is continuing to seek additional funding from National Disability services to further develop the residential respite services in Co Meath.”

Independent Cllr Gillian Toole said that everyone was well aware of the statistics.

She called on all Meath councillors to attend the health committee and health forum meetings in June and July to put Meath’s case.

She had asked senior officials to attend those meetings because up to now there had been “poor attendances”. “If we are to get this over the line for Meath families it does require a very visible demonstration of support.”

“It is most serious. The reply we got I could have written myself because all the information in the letter has been around since January this year.

“I cannot stress the importance and urgency of the delivery of a respite house within this county. There are 200 families waiting on it”.