Up to 1,000 relocated from residential care

Up to 1,000 people with intellectual disabilities in residential care are believed to have been relocated to date to either their family homes or alternative serviced accommodation as a result of the carers' strike.

The National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland said it estimated about 500 people in residential care had been sent to stay with families or relatives.

"At least that number again" have been relocated within the residential care system, a spokeswoman for the organisation said, adding that "this can be equally traumatic" for the service users involved. About 7,000 people with intellectual disabilities are in residential care at present. A further 20,000 people access other mental health care services each year.

The Department of Health and Children yesterday estimated about 250 people have already been relocated in Dublin alone.

Most service providers said the impact of the strike on services had changed little compared to Monday. In South Tipperary, however, the dispute was said to have escalated with the closure of a home for autistic children.

The Brothers of Charity, which runs the home, said the closure followed a decision by striking workers to "pull" emergency cover. Director of services, Ms Johanna Cooney, added: "it's a worry for us because these children have extreme difficulty managing change."

IMPACT yesterday denied it had reduced its emergency cover in the region. A spokesman said as far as he was aware the extent of such cover had not changed since the start of the strike.

More than 35 Brothers of Charity residential service users in Waterford and South Tipperary have already been sent home to their families. Ms Cooney said "considerably more" could be going home tomorrow when cover arrangements ran out.

Mr Paul Ledwidge, chief executive of St Michael's House in Dublin, which has almost 1,500 clients, said its day services were fully restored yesterday. However, about 80 residential service users remained with their parents as a number of homes stayed closed.

He said St Michael's was forced to close another home yesterday, and reopen a separate one, due to problems with SIPTU and IMPACT staff "gelling" on emergency cover. A further problem he said was food preparation.

"We had a lot of our clients at take-aways last night," he remarked. "No one's going to starve. But what worries me is the break in routine. Clients are suffering from this process."

Echoing this view, Mr Wally Freyne, director of services at the Sisters of Charity in Dublin, said "there will be damage from this that will have to be repaired."

Many of these people, he noted, were beginning to feel the strain too. "It's one thing to have someone back for a short stay or a weekend but having them for a whole week when you are not used to managing them can be very difficult."

In Galway, about 100 people who would normally be in residential care spent their second day with their parents and relatives.

Mr Patrick McGinley, director of services with the Brothers of Charity, Galway, expressed his concern at a possible escalation of the industrial dispute. Meanwhile, the Forum for People with Disabilities said yesterday that the dispute has highlighted the urgent need for a system of formal representation for disabled people.

The forum's co-ordinator, Mr Dónal Toolan, said: "I deplore a situation where this vulnerable group . . . have nowhere to turn for representation. What is required is a proper system of advocacy".