A NEWLY bereaved Dublin man in his 20s is being sent to a nursing home for old people because he is mentally handicapped and has nowhere else to live.
At least 10 other people with mental handicaps are living in nursing homes or Alzheimer's centres in Dublin for the same reason, The Irish Times has learned.
Parents of mentally handicapped people are to hold a public meeting in Dublin tonight to protest at the situation.
It is understood that the man had been cared for by his father who died some weeks ago.
He has been receiving day services from St Michael's House which has only received funds for 14 extra residential places this year.
Mr Seamus Green, chairman of the Parents' Future Planning Group, which is organising tonight's meeting, says the man's plight "isn't in the least bit surprising."
"There are more than 10 people from St Michael's House at the moment who are in either Alzheimer's homes or nursing homes."
They are there, he said, because organisations such as St Michael's House have not the money to meet the demand.
Mr Green said that what happens to mentally handicapped people when their parents died was cruel.
Most people may anticipate the death of an aged parent, "but with a mentally handicapped person there is a great chance that this is a huge shock to them."
"The first thing that is going to happen is that they are going to be removed from the family home and quite possibly from the whole district they are used to. Within a very short time they are going to be in an old folks home."
The parents' group has invited local politicians to tonight's meeting in St Michael's House special national school in Ballymun.
There are 1,200 people on the waiting list for residential care throughout the country, Mr Green said, and the demand is growing rapidly.
He said he knows one workshop in Dublin where the average age of parents is over 70 and where parents coping on their own include many in their 80s.
He expects a day will come when he and his wife have died, his other, children will be rearing families of their own and their mentally handicapped daughter "will be whipped out of here some day and put into an old folks home."
"It's hard to explain the feelings; you get thinking about it."