What is Respite?
Respite care means taking a break from caring, while the person you care for is looked after by someone else. It is also an incredibly important experience for both family carers and also the individual with a disability/additional needs as it provides them with a social outlet that promotes independence, psychological wellbeing, fun and friendships.
The National Disability Authority (NDA) in 2004 described respite as:
“Temporary residential care based either in a centre or community based, that is intended to support the maintenance of people with disabilities in their own homes. It can cover a crisis period, take place on a periodic basis to enable a carer to have a break, or can provide the person with disability with medical, therapeutic or support services”
Family Carers Ireland State of Caring 2024 describes respite as
“A cornerstone of formal support for family carers, offering them breaks from the demands of care” and are advocating for carers having the “right to a minimum 20 days respite each year”
Unfortunately, there is no legal right to respite in Ireland, nor is there a national policy on respite services.
Models of Respite available in Co. Donegal
Residential Respite Care – overnight support away in purpose-built facility.
There are currently 4 respite houses in Co Donegal (including Riverwalk, Ballymacool, Drumboe & Seaview) with 17 beds in total. Two of these respite centres are currently closed.
Residential Respite Care providing medial support e.g. to children with life limiting conditions
There are a number of children based in Co. Donegal accessing respite in LauraLynn Children’s Hospice in south Co. Dublin.
Alternative Respite Care
Group activities, recreational clubs, before & after school clubs, camps, holiday schemes and play & friendship groups.There are a variety of providers in Donegal including lead agencies such as Bluestack Special Needs Foundation, iCARE & Spraoi agus Sport, Ability Rocks.
In home/Outreach Respite Care
Provided by organisations on behalf of the HSE & Tusla
Service Provider Respite Care (professional care, including nursing)
Disability Homecare Grant
Disability Respite Grant
The HSE Plan for Disability Services 2024 – 2026 available here identifies a lack of respite service provision in CHO1 (including Donegal) when compared to other areas across Ireland. In general this plan proposes to increase the provision of respite through:
• Provision of alternative respite options including in-home respite, after-school and day respite programmes, host families, summer programmes
• Using existing overnight residential capacity to the maximum extent
• Providing additional overnight respite capacity where this is needed
Specifically for Co. Donegal this includes increasing capacity in Ballymacool respite centre in Letterkenny & the provision of enhanced evening and weekend respite at Ballaghderg, Letterkenny.
We do not believe that this plan goes far enough to support families in Co Donegal who cannot access respite to meet their needs nor the organisations currently providing respite in Co. Donegal.
Our Project
The purpose of this project is to identify the needs for respite across Co. Donegal and to understand the user experiences of existing respite provision & respite availability. For this project we have been engaging with stakeholders such as families of those with a disability across the county including primary carers and siblings and their wider network and individuals with a disability including users of existing respite services.
For the project we are utilising several research methods, including:
Focus groups with a cross section of parents/guardians who have children & adults with a disability/additional needs
Focus group of parents/guardians of children with a disability & high medical needs
A general parent/guardian survey available here
Consultation with providers of alternative respite including iCARE & Bluestack Special Needs Foundation
Focus groups with individuals with a disability to understand the user experience of availing of respite.
We hope through this project we will have a clear evidence based picture on the user experience and needs for respite in Co. Donegal.
With this, we will present this information to the HSE & our local representatives to support better respite provision for families and individuals with a disability in the county.
