Headford teen’s story highlights fiasco of disability funding

Date Published: 15-Jun-2011

The story of one Headford teenager – who turned 18 in May and has a severe intellectual and physical disability – is one of a number to be highlighted this week in the latest RTE Primetime exposé of the state’s failure to care for its most vulnerable citizens.

Shane Molloy has been making remarkable progress in the past two to three years thanks to a multi-disciplinary programme at Rosedale school, run by the Brothers of Charity students aged six to 18 years, with severe and profound learning disabilities in Galway City.

But now Shane’s parents Pauline and David fear that because he is now being treated as an adult by the Department of Education, he may no longer be eligible to continue to be funded to go to Rosedale.

The HSE West has also not yet informed Shane’s family whether they will have enough funding for him to continue to be cared for and helped elsewhere by the Brothers of Charity.

Shane is one of three young men at Rosedale in a similar ‘limbo’ situation of not knowing what will happen to them come September; and is one of 43 young adults with varying degrees of intellectual and physical disability, across County Galway in various other educational settings, who are unsure of whether the Department of Education or HSE will have funding to support their needs. It’s the not knowing and uncertainty that is agonising.

“We’re in limbo and constantly having to fight for services for Shane. It’s a constant battle,” says his mother Pauline.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune – and tune in to Primetime, RTE1, tonight (Thursday) at 9.30pm.