Hollyhill mother begs HSE for residential care for 'violent' disabled son

A Cork mother has begged the HSE to provide residential care for her severely disabled 15-year-old son, as she warned he is a danger to himself and the rest of her family without proper intervention.

Chantelle Healy from Hollyhill said that respite care for Arthur has also been withdrawn, and her family is now in crisis, with gardaí regularly having to be called to the house as the teen becomes increasingly violent.

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould for Cork North-Central has been pleading for help from the HSE for the last month, but has gotten no response, other than to say the query was being worked on.

Arthur was born in January 2001 with schizencephaly and hydrocephalus following a stroke in the womb, which resulted in a brain haemorrhage. Schizencephaly is a rare brain malformation which has resulted in Arthur only having one-third of his brain. Hydrocephalus is the build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles in the brain.

Ms Healy was told by doctors that Arthur would be “physically and mentally handicapped”.

He started walking when he was five and can only speak in words.

However, Ms Healy said that the older Arthur gets, the more violent his diagnoses have made him.

She is 5”3, while Arthur is 5”7. Ms Healy said it is “like being beaten by a man”.

“When he comes back from school, I'm absolutely shivering,” she said.

“I am petrified of my own child coming home from school, because I don’t know what way he’s going to come home.” 

Ms Healy sought respite care for Arthur last year. His first overnight stay was in December, and he received two other nights' respite. However, on his fourth overnight, he had a “meltdown but didn’t harm anyone”.

Arthur has had no respite since and is now on lorazepam, a prescription benzodiazepine for anxiety.

Gardaí have called to the house several times to help Ms Healy when Arthur becomes violent, and she was told on one occasion that the gardaí could hold him under section 12. 

However, she declined this after being told they could not guarantee he “will not be housed with adults using drugs and hiding weapons”.

“I don’t want to put my child into residential [care], but I know I have to for me, for him, and for his brother,” she said.

“It isn’t even a life. Me and Arthur are just existing.” 

In February, Ms Healy sought a residential place for Arthur but has received no response from the HSE.

Mr Gould’s office emailed the HSE on June 18. No response was received by June 24, and a follow-up email was sent. The HSE said on June 26 that they were “requesting a response as soon as possible” from services in the south west.

No response was received by July 1, with Mr Gould’s office warning that the need for residential care was now “urgent”. On July 6, the HSE said it was “requesting a response as soon as possible”.

On July 10, Mr Gould’s office told the HSE that the gardaí were in Ms Healy’s home for two hours, and that the “situation is becoming dangerous”.

The HSE said the query was brought to their attention on June 22, and the agreed timeframe for response was 15 working days.

On July 13, the HSE stated that the “head of disability services has received a comprehensive report on this case but is awaiting one final bit of information before responding”.

Mr Gould said the Healy family is in “crisis”, but no response has been received from the HSE.

“I'm a month trying to get an answer out of the HSE for a family that's in crisis. That's not good enough,” he said.

A spokesperson for HSE South-West said that "all effort goes into sustaining a child within the family environment before residential placements are considered".

They said that there are 19 children in residential placements in Cork City, with no vacant beds. Of 350 people requiring placement, nine are children.

“It is not always possible to map a definitive timeframe for allocation of a placement,” they added.