Volunteer families play host to people with disabilities

Caring for someone with a mental or physical disability can put a lot of strain on families and the individual alike. Thankfully, there are services operating in Galway which can lighten this workload somewhat.

The Home Share scheme was introduced to the county in 1985 and originally recruited families to provide support for children with disabilities for weekend breaks over the summer months.

BY MICHEÁL O’BRIEN

The programme is provided by voluntary organisation Ability West in partnership with the Brothers of Charity and has grown exponentially since its inception. There are now up to 80 families who offer regular support to people of all ages with mental and physical disabilities.

The scheme is broken up into three areas. Short breaks entails volunteer hosts – families, couples and individuals welcoming people with disabilities to their homes on a regular basis for short periods of time. This can be for a few hours a week, for weekend visits, or for longer holiday-type breaks.

Contract Home Sharing is an extension of this. Host families are required to provide rooms to individuals for a longer period – usually up to 16 nights a month. They can take a single guest for this period or may have a succession of guests to which they have been carefully matched.

The host family receives an annual payment and additional expenses based on the needs of the guest per night completed.

Shared living then is when volunteers offer full or part time accommodation to adults with disabilities, although there are limited opportunities for this in Galway as of yet.

Audrey Reilly, Respite and Community Services Manager with Ability West, says that the scheme centres around offering respite to families with a disabled member.

“The scheme gives the natural family of the disabled person a break and an opportunity to step out of their normal routine for longer periods of time. But it is also quite beneficial for the disabled person availing of our services as well. They are afforded a break from their family which helps them become more independent and form real friendships outside their next of kin.”

The organisation maintains that breaks which involve staying with a host family are universally considered to be much more socially inclusive than respite in traditional segregated services.

Those wishing to volunteer and host a disabled person must go through a bi-annual six week training course and undertake a rigorous vetting process.

“There is a lot of paperwork involved I will admit,” says Audrey. “The requirements to become a host are quite liberal, however. The host family does not have to be a man and woman with children. It can be either or, with children or without, employed or unemployed. All that is needed is home space, a genuine interest in helping and caring and being able to meet certain criteria.”

The organisation looks for what skills or experience a prospective volunteer might possess and how they may deal with certain crisis scenarios during the training course.

After the course is completed, volunteers partake in an assessment not unlike the one required for foster care and a social worker goes to their home to gauge what a family can offer and their own experiences if any with special needs.

Even children are spoken with to see if they would be okay with another child or adult coming to stay with them.

All of this information, as well as Garda clearance, medical records and the provision of three references, are collated by the social worker with their own reference and given to a panel made up of representatives within Ability West and the Brothers of Charity from which they can make their decision on the eligibility of a volunteer.

“Home share acts as a mediator then between host family and natural family. They match individual with special needs with the host family on the basis on what the individual’s needs and what the host family can provide. Things like house location, if the individual has transport needs, if the family has children and so on.

“Each party then is given a penned picture of the other; should they decide upon a match, they meet in a school or day centre and can usually tell from there if the arrangement is going to work or not. We reach a three way agreement and set up when the individual can stay with the host,” Audrey says.

The organisation provides support to the host family and individual then on matters such as wheelchair accessibility, sleeping, toilet, hygiene, education, religion needs. All avenues of difficulty are catered for – which is a testament to the experience and quality of the organisation.

Recently the practice guidelines for hosts were put in accessible book form and will be made on the website at www.abilitywest.ie in the near future. Those interested in the scheme can find more information there also.

Audrey herself is adamant about the merits of the programme. “The scheme provides something worthwhile and fulfilling for the volunteer host and the differently-abled person. Families receive companionship and a chance to make a difference to the lives of everyone in their households and that is truly worth pursuing.”