Latest news with #intellectualdisability
Irish Times
29-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, July 29th: On the HSE's lost millions and funding services, the All-Ireland and women, and Gaza
Sir, – Is it not galling for the thousands of parents who rely on service for their children and adults with an intellectual disability to read; 'Ten of millions in HSE money lost, say auditors,' (July 26th) when those who provide these services are subject to a punitive 'value for money' penalty annually and are starved of the necessary funding to provide the services that are so obviously needed? The hope of a residential places for my 41-year old daughter was just this week ended by a letter from the chief of the service provider she attends stating that; '[it has] paused acceptance of new referrals to the residential wait list…we continuously seek funding for new premises from the relevant departments, but applications to date have not transferred to appropriate housing'. Today, there are hundreds of parents like myself and wife in their 70s and 80s providing full-time care for their adult children with an intellectual disability. With no certainty as to what will happen to our daughter when we are no longer able to provide the care she needs, we live in dread for her future. READ MORE In the context of the auditor's report is it not an indictment of the political system that no one can answer my simple question; 'what will happen my daughter when I die?' The wanton waste and lack of accountability by the HSE and our politicians, while not surprising, is nonetheless, staggering. – Yours, etc, TONY MURRAY, Chairman, Before I Die, Fairview, Dublin 3. Air drops, Gaza, and protests Sir, – Air drops are costly, inefficient and dangerous. Crucially, they do not address the significant risks of refeeding syndrome. When a population has been starved or malnourished for a period of time, they require careful reintroduction of appropriate specialised foods to avoid overwhelming the metabolic processes. Failure to firstly provide appropriate electrolytes to the starved, instead giving random quantities of non-specialised food through air drops, can lead to cardiac abnormalities, delirium and death. This is known as refeeding syndrome and is well known in the humanitarian and medical spheres. This is another example of the damage that removing humanitarian access from Gaza has done, and makes the cynical performance of air drops even starker. – Yours, etc, DR LISA McNAMEE, Dartry, Dublin 6. Sir, – I wish to support the proposal for a national day of protest (Letters, July 24th and 26th) over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Words are inadequate when faced with the starvation of men, women and children, regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, creed or religion. I force myself to watch the news and read the reports and feel ashamed because I have done nothing to stop these terrible atrocities or help the poor victims who continue to suffer, day after day. There is pain on both sides of any conflict but the civilians in Gaza are bearing the brunt of the war. A national day of protest, a demonstration condemning the atrocities inflicted upon the civilians in Gaza, would garner support from all corners of our society. – Yours, etc, HELEN MURRAY, Church Street, Dublin 7. Sir, – Liz O'Donnell proposes a national day of protest over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (Letters, July 26th). Has she missed the 16 national demonstrations held in Dublin calling for an end to the genocide organized by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign since October 2023? Or the thousands of locally organised solidarity actions and events that have taken place across the island these past 21 months? Ms O'Donnell praises the 'courageous stance taken by the Irish Government' on Gaza so she clearly has no issue with the US military using Shannon Airport to transport arms and personnel or Israeli war planes flying through Irish airspace, or the Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds. Or Ireland's export of more than €97 million worth of dual-use products to Israel since October 2023. If protests were enough to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, then it would have happened by now. What is needed is immediate Government action that ends all complicity with Israel's genocide in Palestine. – Yours etc., STEPHEN McCLOSKEY, Director Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Sir, – Two letters published in The Irish Times (July 28th) on Gaza have shredded any illusion that there does not exist in Ireland a strong feeling that Jews, everywhere are to be blamed collectively for the actions in Gaza of the Israeli government. Chris Fitzpatrick, announcing himself as a Christian, quotes the Bible to provide evidence of how Jewish teaching is being eschewed by Israelis and then demands that 'Jewish people need to raise their voices in protest'. Angela Currie informs us that Israeli and diaspora Jews are not aware of the suffering in Gaza. She, too, demands that Jews stand up and 'shout your disgust'. The one-sided media narrative in Ireland has created unprecedented anti-Jewish sentiment, increasingly isolating the Jewish community here. Would the letter writers not have considered the same call to Muslims, to condemn the indescribable cruelty and moral corruption of Hamas? Does Mr Fitzpatrick's christianity not motivate him to urge Christians everywhere to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine where every single one of the ten commandments has been turned on its head? There are millions of Jews in Israel, in the diaspora, secular and religious who are protesting against the Israeli action in Gaza. You may have to wander outside the Irish media bubble to find them. To quote Matthew 7:5 'Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.' – Yours, etc, CATHERINE PUNCH, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. EU-US trade agreement Sir, – The trade agreement just agreed between the US and EU provides for a 15 per cent tariff on EU goods entering the US, but I can find no reference to a reciprocal tariff on US goods entering the EU. Is it the same as the 15 per cent applying in the other direction or some other figure ? Can we assume the EU will apply an identical or at least similar tariff ? If not we are entitled to know why there is no such tariff is being applied. The EU has agreed to buy large amounts of US goods. Has the US in turn agreed to buy a similarly large amount of EU goods. If not why not ? – Yours, etc, NIALL LOMBARD, Mount Merrion Co Dublin. Phone alone Sir, – We visited our son in the Gaeltacht at the weekend. He looked healthy and happy and not at all suffering from withdrawal symptoms from only being allowed access to his phone for 15 minutes a day. Sounds like a route back to full health and happiness for us all! – Yours, etc, BRIAN QUIGLEY, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. GAA women, and All-Ireland football finals Sir, – Congratulations to Kerry for winning the Men's All-Ireland Football Final. Note my addition of 'Men's' at the beginning of the sentence which all of the media insists on omitting. The omission of 'men's 'presupposes that the football final is the only one. However, the Women's All-Ireland Football Final is on August 3rd. The first women's GAA football final was played in 1974, 51 years ago! Why then presume Sunday's final was the only one? Words matter. – Yours, etc, CARMEL WHITE, Castleknock, Dublin. Sir, –The Kerry victory against Donegal arrived in the nick of time to save Gaelic football from extinction. What a relief to see a return to high fielding, long distance kicking and a plethora of scores on a regular basis. The data driven obsession, borrowed from soccer and American football, with its clichés about zonal defence, dominating the middle third, edge of the D, outside and inside the arc, and so on ad nauseam, had made this relatively simple and spontaneous game the world's most boring, and unwatchable, except for scoreless soccer games. At last the new rules have liberated natural and skilful athletes like David Clifford and Michael Murphy to keep going forward toward goal and not sideways and backwards in a dreary process of endless handball, that former greats like Mick O'Connell would not recognise at all. The two points from long distance and long kick outs from the goalie have also helped, but backward handpassing should be banned completely. Gaelic football still has a long way to go to equal the wizardry and skill of hurling or rugby at its best, but at least it is finally going in the right direction. – Yours, etc, MAURICE O'CALLAGHAN, Stillorgan, Co Dublin. Sir, – New rules, what new rules? Surely what we witnessed yesterday represented a step backwards for the once great game of Gaelic football. For 80 per cent of yesterday's game, what I witnessed was field basketball with flashes of real football thrown in to break the silence. Back to the drawing board? – Yours, etc, NIALL GINTY, Killester, Dublin 5. Sir, – Ian O' Riordan's tribute to the great Con Houlihan ('T he gospel of Kerry football according to Con Houlihan ,' July 26th) was beautiful and timely. Con surely would have enjoyed Kerry's victory while being 'befuddled' by the July so. If the GAA gets its hands on Christmas we will be celebrating it in October ! – Yours, etc, JIM CAFFREY, Dundrum, Dublin. East is West Sir, – In Saturday's Irish Times, the Reuter's article 'Trump to mix golf with politics on Scottish visit', it was stated that Turnberry is on Scotland's east coast and Aberdeen on Scotland's west coast. In fact, Turnberry is on Scotland's west coast and Aberdeen is on Scotland's east coast. – Yours, etc, JOE KEARNEY, Castleknock Dublin 15. Truth and reconciliation Sir, – Edward M Neafsey is absolutely right in pointing out one of the key limitations that prevents many victims and survivors of the Troubles from engaging with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) to secure truth and, or justice for them, (Letters, July 23rd). But in fairness to the ICRIR this is not the commission's fault, it is due to basic defects in the Legacy Act and implicit in its terms of reference, which the current British government is attempting to address now. We also believe that the lack of any form of conditional amnesty for former combatants is a key factor in ensuring the full facts of many legacy cases never see the light of day and that former miscarriages of justice are not addressed. Time to do so is rapidly slipping away, especially for the most violent years up to the end of 1976 when most people were killed or injured. One major problem is the insistence by the authorities and by some victims groups that cases can only be addressed through the criminal justice system. As one of the most distinguished and authoritative contributors to the debate, Tom Hadden has pointed out in the latest issue of Fortnight, 'In reality, the two objectives of truth recovery and reconciliation require very different skills and formal powers'. The ICRIR may be salvageable as the investigatory body or one devoted the reconciliation, but it cannot be both. As currently constituted it is primarily an investigatory one, as required by the Act. However, we believe that a narrow ground has emerged in the debate that suggests there is a path between protected disclosure and conditional amnesty that can provide for truth recovery and reconciliation through mediation as an alternative to the existing processes and procedures. With this in mind, we are proposing to hold a conference on October 18th, at Queen's University, Belfast, at which we hope to address the realistic options for unshackling the present and the future from the perpetual legacy wars. These include continuing access to the courts for all Troubles-related criminal and civil cases and continued use of the ICRIR for those who seek to access its services. We are also proposing the speedy conclusion of all outstanding public inquiries and access to a mediation process based on our conditional amnesty proposals. In addition, we propose the establishment of a Joint British-Irish review body to monitor progress in all of these areas. The conference should be taking place shortly after the UK Supreme Court has given its decision on the British government's appeal against the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal decisions upholding objections to the current legislation. – Yours, etc, HARRY DONAGHY, Northern Chair, JOHN GREEN, Southern Chair, PADRAIG YEATES, Secretary. Portmarnock, Dublin 13. A good deal for religious bodies Sir, – Liam Herrick ('I'm angry that my abuse as a child does not count – State must pay for school sexual abuse', July 28th) observes that, in relation to implementing national child protection measures, the State 'cannot outsource that responsibility to religious organisations, nor hide behind procedural defences'. One might add: 'like it outsources education to religious organisations and hides behind procedural defences when it comes children's constitutional right not to attend religious instruction.' What a deal religious organisations have in this country – education is outsourced to them, but funding and liability are not. They remain with us taxpayers. – Yours, etc, ROB SADLIER, Human Rights Officer, Education Equality, Rathfarnham, Dublin. Handy tip for looking busy Sir, – Ruby Eastwood ponders the nature of work: ' The greater part of any job is learning to look bus y,' (July 26th). I absolutely concur. Walking the corridors or through an open plan office with a file under your arm seemed to work best. – Yours, etc, MIKE MORAN, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Irish Times
27-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Widow of noted psychiatrist Michael Mulcahy left more than €5m in will
Joan Mulcahy, the widow of noted psychiatrist Dr Michael Mulcahy , left estate valued at €5.5 million when she died in October last year, according to papers lodged with the Probate Office. The couple met when sailing to New York in 1956. When their paths crossed again two years later they married just a month afterwards in New York in April 1958. Dr Mulcahy became one of the most eminent psychiatrists of his generation and was an internationally renowned figure in the specialism of intellectual disability. He also spearheaded the move from institutional care to community houses in Ireland. The couple lived at Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin. He died in January 2021. READ MORE In other wills, Kevin Doherty, former solicitor and Leitrim county registrar, of Cootehall, Boyle, Co Roscommon, who died in May last year, left an estate valued at €2.5 million. Mr Doherty was a member of the well-known Co Roscommon family and a brother of the late Fianna Fáil politician, Seán. Margaret Goor, of Annacrivey House, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, who was noted for sailing the world with her husband John, a former managing director of Blackwood Hodge, left an estate valued at €8.4 million when she died last October . Co Wicklow farmer Martin Patrick Carr, with an address at Ashtown Farm, Ashtown Lane, Wicklow town, died in August 2023 and left more than €9.5 million. Marie Crosbie, of Killeen House, Kill, Co Kildare, and formerly of The Grange, Lucan, Co Dublin, left estate valued at €8.5 million when she died in May last year. Businessman Terence Crawford Johnson, of Stratmore Road, Killiney, Co Dublin, who died last December, left estate valued at €7.79 million. Mr Johnson was a member of the Johnston family, which owned the distribution company Johnson Brothers. John (Sean) Lyons of Mount Alto, Ashford, Co Wicklow, who died in January, left estate valued at €6.9 million. James J Swan, of Skryne Hill, Tara, Co Meath, who died in March 2023, left estate valued at €4.09 million. Catherine Boylan, of Primrose Hill, Celbridge, Co Kildare, who died in September 2021, left estate valued at more than €3.1 million. Michael Behan, of Ormond Road South, Rathgar, Dublin, who died in June last year, left estate valued at more than €3.6 million. The values quoted above include all assets, typically including the value of a home and other holdings such as land or investments
South China Morning Post
04-07-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
South Korean officials remove 80 tonnes of hoarded garbage from family home
Published: 10:21pm, 4 Jul 2025 City officials in Daegu, South Korea , have removed 80 metric tonnes (88 US tons) of garbage from the home of a family of hoarders, after the residents of the household were sent to local medical facilities for psychological treatment. The massive clean-up occurred over three days last month, city officials said on Thursday. The family, consisting of a woman in her 60s and her two adult children in their 40s, was placed under 'administrative hospitalisation'. This process involves the forced admission of individuals whose diagnosed mental disorders pose a danger to themselves or others, according to a report from The Korea Herald. The son reportedly has a severe intellectual disability, while his mother and sister suffer from Plyushkin's disorder – also known as hoarding disorder – which is a condition characterised by an inability to part with possessions. Once the family was admitted for treatment, officials persuaded them to consent to a 'wide-scale cleaning' of their home in Daegu, a city about 310km (193 miles) southeast of Seoul . Plyushkin's disorder – also known as hoarding disorder – is a condition characterised by an inability to part with possessions. Photo: Shutterstock The huge build-up of rubbish had led to pest infestations and unpleasant odours, prompting complaints from neighbours.
RNZ News
23-06-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Woman lay dead more than two days in supported accommodation
Photo: 123RF A woman with an intellectual disability living in supported accommodation lay dead for more than two days before staff found her, an investigation by the Health and Disability Commission (HDC) has found. In a just-released decision, Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall said Spectrum Care Limited breached the woman's rights by failing to ensure she was taking her anti-epilepsy medication or carry out adequate checks on her well-being. A post-mortem examination found the woman in her 30s, who died in early 2021, had not been taking her medication as prescribed. The report noted the woman (Ms A), who had suffered a traumatic brain injury as a toddler, was "determined to live independently" and often refused help. "Ms A shared Spectrum support workers with the person living in the flat next to hers, and she was able to be supported 24/7. However, mostly the support she received was at her own request." Unless she asked for help, she was usually checked once a day - "or not at all if staff did not want to anger/wake her". She had a long history of threatening and physically aggressive behaviour towards staff and police, but over the years, Spectrum had given her support with "anger management" and trained caregivers in behaviour support strategies. Wall said Spectrum "should be commended" for supporting Ms A to live independently, but it failed to adequately mitigate the risks. She had her medication for epilepsy and diabetes in blister packs, at her request. "Staff were supposed to remind her daily to take her medication, and if she was in a 'good mood' she would take them. "In 2021 there are three recorded instances when A refused to take her medications. Spectrum noted that if A was angry, she would refuse and sometimes throw the medications over the fence or onto the roof, and sometimes she would hide the blister pack so that staff could not check it." The caregiver who delivered her evening meal said she could still hear music playing from Ms A's apartment the next morning, "which made her think that A must be in a good mood, although she did not see A all day". A second caregiver, who came on duty at 3pm, went to ask Ms A what she would like for dinner, but saw she was in bed with music playing. He assumed that was sleeping "and did not want to wake her as this could trigger aggressive behaviour". He went to her flat again the next day at 11am and saw she was still lying in the same position. He entered the flat, called her name, and shook her body but she could not be roused. An independent investigation commissioned by Spectrum after her death found Ms A had been assessed as needing 24/7 support with day-to-day needs. In practice, this occurred on a once-a-day basis only, unless Ms A requested additional support or not at all if staff did not want to wake/anger her. Sean Stowers, Spectrum Care chief executive officer. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly "It was established that A had not been seen face-to-face by staff for more than one day." Ms A operated "in a high-trust system and he was known to occasionally break that trust". "This inevitably put her at risk, and there were insufficient checks and balances in the system to mitigate those risks. [Ms A's] policy of only allowing staff into her space when it suited her was also a risk. While it honoured her independence, it also prevented staff from monitoring her welfare and compromised their duty of care. "Staff trusted her to take her medicine, but there was no way to check that she had taken it at the right time. When she died, which was probably on the night of [Day1] or in the early morning of [Day 2], it became clear that she had not taken any of her prescribed medication [for the last few days]. This put her at risk and staff had no way of knowing she was at risk." Spectrum has since introduced a 'Self-Administration of Medicine Agreement' outlining the conditions for clients who control their own medication. Rose Wall. Photo: Supplied / HDC An expert adviser to the HDC, John Taylor, said a once-a-day check-in for someone with "very high support" needs was a severe departure from both the expected standard of care and the contract. "It is concerning that it took such a tragic event for Spectrum to develop and implement a new SOP [standard operating procedure] outlining that wellbeing checks of residential consumers should occur at least thrice daily." Regarding the lax oversight of Ms A's medication, Taylor said this was "a severe departure from the expected standard of care". Allowing people the "dignity of risk" meant respecting a person's autonomy and self-determination to make his or her own choices, but also providing appropriate safeguards, information and strategies to "minimise the risk of harm", he said. "To be clear, there is no 'dignity' for a person if they are left to face the consequences of risks they could not foresee, manage or understand." Wall said Spectrum had accepted the finding of "an organisational breach", and had itself identified "service-level failings". She directed the provider to apologise to Ms A's mother and family for the issues identified in the report, and revise its operating procedures to include alternative ways of doing wellbeing checks and medication reminders. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
ABC News
17-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Mother calls for change after daughter with intellectual disability told to wait five months for CT scan
One of Imogen's favourite games is to play doctor with her teddy. As she pretends to take a blood sample, it is clear how familiar she is with being reassured during medical procedures. "It's OK Teddy, it doesn't hurt," she tells a knitted bear fitted with a cannula. The five-year-old knows what it is like being scared of needles, hospitals and health workers. Imogen lives with a rare condition, which involves intellectual disability and profound hearing loss. To prepare for medical procedures, her parents use games, toys and stories. But nothing they have tried works when it comes to CT scans. Her mum Ineke once managed to get her into the room at Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney, where the scanner was decorated with colourful fish to reassure young people. "It was just too overwhelming. Even though she desperately wanted to try, she was not able to," Ineke said. So when their ear nose and throat specialist had concerns a mass may be growing in her middle ear, a scan under anaesthetic was ordered. Ineke was shocked when she was told her daughter would have to wait five months for the procedure. Do you have a story to share? Email More than 450,000 Australians live with intellectual disability, according to government data. People with intellectual disability die on average 27 years earlier than the rest of the Australian population and have double the preventable death rate, according to research from UNSW's National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health. A review into deaths of people with disability in care in Queensland also found "many people [were] not diagnosed with the condition that led to their death until either just before their death or at autopsy." Cathy Franklin, a researcher with the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability and Autism Health, said there was not enough support for people with intellectual disability in the medical system. She said even having a simple procedure like a blood test could be challenging for this community and the people who cared for them. Accommodations that can help make it possible for a person with intellectual disability to undergo a medical procedure include role play or visual stories that explain the smells, sensations, sounds and movements to expect. Dr Franklin said only a few medical centres across Australia do this and are generally set up to accommodate children. "In most parts of Australia, there's simply nowhere to refer if someone with intellectual or developmental disability needs a blood test under sedation or even just with additional psychological support," she said. It took several weeks and many phone calls before Imogen's mum was able to secure an appointment for her CT scan under a general anaesthetic. When her GP saw the results, the family was told to take her straight to hospital. The radiologist's report noted the bones in her middle ear were "almost completely eroded" and other parts were facing "near complete obliteration". Within 48 hours, Imogen underwent urgent surgery to remove the rapidly advancing growth. "That there could have been even more serious consequences is really scary." Ineke said the family was grateful for the care Imogen received over the years across multiple hospitals, but lamented it often fell on individual healthcare workers to ensure her daughter received the care she needed. She has written to NSW Health asking for an increase to the number of days allocated to medical imaging under anaesthetic, worried that others were missing out on the kind of care Imogen received. "It was a near miss," Ineke said. "Many families, especially families who have kids with disabilities, don't have the time, energy or resources to be able to advocate in the way that I was able to." In a statement, NSW Health said it was "committed to providing safe, inclusive, person-centred care to people with disability". It said the decision to conduct imaging under sedation or general anaesthetic was based on the needs of the patient and in conversation with the treating practitioner, the patient, their families and in line with relevant policies. A statement from the Sydney Children's Hospital Network focused only on MRI scans. "All children and young people requiring an MRI scan, with or without general anaesthetic, are triaged and prioritised based on clinical need, with the most urgent cases always seen first," a spokesperson said. "Parents are given an estimated timeframe for an MRI scan, however, this timeframe may change based on a child's clinical assessment," they said. "For children who do require general anaesthetic, MRI sessions are held five times a week, with emergency sessions run on weekends, as required. There is no anticipated change to the service." If a parent feels their child's condition has worsened, they can contact their child's treating team so a clinical review can take place, the spokesperson added.
