Madam, – We are the parents of Siobhan Powell, a young woman of 25 years. She suffers from a rare chromosome disorder, leading to severe mental, physical and developmental retardation. She attends Ard Aoibhinn in Wexford town five days a week, a service we are very happy about. She also receives four hours a week home support.
Several times a year she also attends respite services, and she loves the chance to meet new people and new experiences. Up to a few years ago she got three to four weeks in Ard Lios, Gorey; one weekend each term in Dawn House, Wexford; and a couple of weekends each year in Caim, Enniscorthy. Over the years this has been cut back and now Mulcahy house, Gorey, is the only place to offer her respite. Up to and including this year she has received three weeks in a year, from Monday to Monday. This service is not perfect, for our part we would prefer a bit more flexibility. A full week’s respite can be quite tiring, and we would have preferred to divide the week up into three to four day segment scattered though the year. It would also have been nice to get a say in when the respite would be available. But this year, on December 22nd we received a letter with shocking news.
Siobhan has lost a week’s respite, so all she now has is two weeks in the year. Also, no transport will be provided to bring the service users to and from respite.
Up to now Siobhan has been picked up on Monday morning by her usual transport and dropped back the following Monday afternoon. Mulcahy house is only open from 4pm Monday till 9am the following Monday. This means we will now have to go to Wexford and pick up Siobhan at 3.30pm and drive her to Gorey. The following Monday Siobhan has to be picked up before 9am, which will mean that the only feasible solution for us is to pick her up on Sunday evening. We therefore lose two days off each respite break, as well as one week out of three.
In the present climate everybody has to expect cutbacks, we understand that. Siobhan has already lost on her disability payment, but she has now lost 40 per cent of her respite services. This hardly seems fair, does it? – Yours, etc,