Don’t Leave them behind has received a number of calls/emails from carers and families concerned that they are receiving communications from their service providers that the limited Day Care Service on offer currently is to be curtailed significantly as a direct result of the failure of the HSE to recruit staff to carry out Swabbing services for COVID 19 trace and tracking .
The HSE has issued a directive ” that all staff trained in swabbing should be made available immediately for rosters in testing centres “
This directive has resulted in many service providers advising families and carers that services on offer will be reduced significantly with one organisation advising
” Unfortunately this will reduce the time available for appointments and support that the team can provide to you for the next few weeks “
The fact that the HSE issued this directive without any consolation is an indication of their lack of interest in the key services provided and the damage that the lack of these services will do to people with disabilities .
The lack of support any Government level to address this does not surprise anyone involved in supporting persons with disabilities and with 5 Ministers who use ” Disabilities ” in their titles sitting on their collective hands is shameful.
You will recall that in March the HSE closed down all Day Care Services and move key support workers to work on ” contact tracing ” , you will also recall that we reported time at the time t that little or no tracing took place over this period and these key staff spent most of their time totally underutllised .
The HSE also assigned some day care staff to residential care services as they deemed it a more “Urgent ” requirement and demonstrated no interest in the circumstances that carers and their families suffered as a result of these decisions.
Recent studies of how this impacted of persons with ASD and their carers and families now shown that the damage done to these young adults was significant .
A report by Dublin City University highlights a decline in abilities and skills since COVID 19 arrived and services withdrawn along with an increase in challenging behaviour .
Parents and carers of persons with ASD had already had to deal with the slow lifting of restrictions with the unique challenges in relation to social skills due to the lack of social interaction and of course challenges with leaving the house.
Don’t Leave them Behind has campaigned for a number of interventions that will assist young people to return to ” normal ” life including the provision of an exemption pass for many on the spectrum who can’t wear face covering and who received abuse when out and about unmasked, we will continue this battle until such time as the Government produce an exemption pass .
Todays news relating to the failure of the HSE to release key staff back to day care services is totally unacceptable and is resulting in the return to limited day services offered and huge concern about the stop start nature of the services available .
We will not allow these services to be removed again during this Pandemic if you or a persons you care for is affected by these decisions contact Don’t Leave Them Behind today at .info@dontleavethembehind.com