{"id":563802,"date":"2026-07-23T06:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563802\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T06:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:02:16","slug":"cork-mother-appeals-for-residential-care-for-disabled-son-as-family-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563802\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork mother appeals for residential care for disabled son as family ‘in crisis’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cork mother has appealed to the HSE to provide residential care for her 15-year-old son, who has severe disabilities, saying her family is in crisis and he is a danger to himself and other members of the household without appropriate intervention.<\/p>\n

Chantelle Healy, from Hollyhill, told the Irish Examiner that respite care for her son, Arthur, has also been withdrawn. She said garda\u00ed have been called to the family home on several occasions as the teenager has become increasingly violent.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Cork North-Central Thomas Gould said he has been seeking assistance from the HSE for the family for the past month but has received no substantive response other than being told the query was being dealt with.<\/p>\n

The HSE also told Mr Gould\u2019s office that agreed response timelines were in place after it requested the case be prioritised because the \u201csituation is becoming dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

‘I am petrified’<\/p>\n

Arthur was born in January 2011 with schizencephaly and hydrocephalus following a stroke in the womb, which resulted in a brain haemorrhage. Schizencephaly is a rare brain malformation that has resulted in Arthur having only around one-third of his brain, while hydrocephalus is a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain’s ventricles.<\/p>\n

Ms Healy said doctors told her Arthur would be \u201cphysically and mentally handicapped\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said he began walking when he was five years old and is able to communicate only using single words.<\/p>\n

\"ChantelleChantelle Healy, from Hollyhill, with her son, Arthur.<\/p>\n

However, Ms Healy said Arthur has become increasingly violent as he has grown older.<\/p>\n

She said she is 5ft 3in, while Arthur is 5ft 7in, adding that being assaulted by him is \u201clike being beaten by a man\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he comes back from school, I’m absolutely shivering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am petrified of my own child coming home from school, because I don\u2019t know what way he\u2019s going to come home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Respite care withdrawn<\/p>\n

Ms Healy secured respite care for Arthur last year. His first overnight stay was in December, followed by two further overnight stays. However, she said that during his fourth overnight stay he had a \u201cmeltdown but didn\u2019t harm anyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Arthur has not received respite care since and is now prescribed lorazepam, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety.<\/p>\n

Ms Healy said garda\u00ed have attended the family home several times when Arthur became violent. On one occasion, she said, she was told garda\u00ed could detain him under Section 12, but she declined after being told they could not guarantee he \u201cwill not be housed with adults using drugs and hiding weapons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to put my child into residential [care], but I know I have to for me, for him, and for his brother,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t even a life; Me and Arthur are just existing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Calls for urgent action<\/p>\n

Ms Healy applied for a residential placement for Arthur in February but said she has received no response from the HSE.<\/p>\n

\"ChantelleChantelle Healy, from Hollyhill, with her son, Arthur.<\/p>\n

Mr Gould\u2019s office first contacted the HSE on June 18. When no response was received by June 24, a follow-up email was sent.<\/p>\n

The HSE replied on June 26, saying it was \u201crequesting a response as soon as possible\u201d from services in the South West.<\/p>\n

When no response had been received by July 1, Mr Gould\u2019s office warned that the need for residential care was now \u201curgent\u201d.<\/p>\n

On July 6, the HSE again said it was \u201crequesting a response as soon as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

On July 10, Mr Gould\u2019s office informed the HSE that garda\u00ed had been at Ms Healy\u2019s home for two hours and that the \u201csituation is becoming dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

The HSE said the query had been brought to its attention on June 22 and that the agreed response timeframe was 15 working days.<\/p>\n

On July 13, the HSE stated that the \u201chead of disability services has received a comprehensive report on this case but is awaiting one final bit of information before responding\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Gould told the Irish Examiner the Healy family was in \u201ccrisis\u201d and that no meaningful response had yet been received from the HSE.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a month trying to get an answer out of the HSE for a family that’s in crisis. That’s not good enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

HSE response<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for HSE South West said \u201cevery effort goes into sustaining a child within the family environment before residential placements are considered\u201d.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said there are 19 children in residential placements in Cork city, with no vacant beds. Of the 350 people requiring placement, nine are children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not always possible to map a definitive timeframe for allocation of a placement,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cork mother has appealed to the HSE to provide residential care for her 15-year-old son, who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-563802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}