Holy Family School parents to address council over lack of young adult services

Members of the parents association attached to Holy Family School are to address a future meeting of Cavan County Council to highlight concerns held over the lack of services and opportunities for young adults after they graduate the Cootehill-based learning centre.

Norma McVitty’s son Oisin is 13 years old. He’s non-verbal and has other acute learning needs. When he turns 18 an opportunity will open for him to attend the nearby Drumlin House. However, due to capacity now and looking forward, even five years down the line his mum is uncertain how often he’ll get to attend the local training centre. “It could be one day, it might be three days. They may or may not have that, and for three years at the most. In previous years you’d be there until it suited but they can’t offer that now, so we don’t know. There’s so much demand there already, and looking at the way things are now, where the Holy Family School is already near capacity, we don’t know what will be available to him.”

Norma, whose father in law is Fine Gael’s Peter McVitty, will be among those to make a presentation to elected members in the coming months.

Cllr McVitty tabled a motion to invite members of the HFS’ parents association at the February monthly meeting of councillors, saying: “Nobody can do it better or make the case better than parents themselves.”

He said that young adults of 18 years leaving HFS had “few options”, and there was a “serious need” for more facilities in Cavan to help cater for their continued education.

His motion was seconded by fellow party colleague Madeleine Argue.

Norma told the Celt that it was an “important first step” to making sure the collective voice of young people with intellectual disabilities was heard. She stated that, for too long Cavan, had “fallen into a grey area” in such regards.

“The services that are out there are either full to capacity now, or have very limited places, and that demand that’s there is only going to grow looking at the situation that’s there now. There are not enough spaces there for the children currently coming out of the Holy Family School, or classes in secondary school where the children aren’t maybe ready to go onto college immediately. As well as that, there is really nothing there for young adults with additional medical needs.”

One solution Norma suggests is a potential reassessment of the use of some of the vacant buildings in towns and villages across the county that have been earmarked for everything from remote working hubs to community resource centres.

She says a “need” that exists among young adults with additional needs, and it was important that they too “would be considered in the grand scheme of things.” We’re not going [to the council] looking for a fight. We just want to make [councillors] more aware].

Norma, who has worked in the sector herself, says Cavan has “fallen between the lines” compared to other counties.

“In Kildare there are several different options, and they will have feeder respite, which is another concern among parents. One house in Cootehill to serve two counties, adults and children, really isn’t going to make up the numbers. There are some private options coming on stream, but there is still a huge waiting list.”