MUM’S APPEAL TO HELP DAUGHTER
MARY KATE RISKS NOT BEING ABLE TO TALK WITHOUT THERAPY
A Dundalk mother is appealing for support for a GoFundMe appeal which has been set up to help her severely disabled daughter get the treatment she needs.
Mary Jane Maguire says that eight-yearold Mary Kate has been let down by the system and she is being forced to go private to get the therapy which her daughter desperately needs.
‘Mary Kate has been assessed as having severe intellectual disability along with autism but she isn’t getting the treatment she needs,’ says Mary Jane, who lives in Laurelbrook Gardens.
The mother of two claims that because of this failure, her daughter has actually regressed and she fears that a valuable window of opportunity for helping her child develop communication skills is being lost.
‘When Mary Kate started attending the St John of God school at Drumcar, she had seven words but now she only has two. Outside of that, she’s non-verbal.’
She describes her daughter has severe behaviour issues and cannot be left on her own and says that the final straw came when her daughter came home from school, having bitten through the flesh on the top of her fingers.
Her daughter’s behaviour is so bad that Mary Jane has been unable to get home support as a care worker appointed by the HSE refused to be on her own with the child.
‘Her behaviour has got increasingly worse to the point that she’s very difficult to deal with. She’s getting stronger. She hits herself and doesn’t seem to feel it. She will punch herself on the head, walk into walls, and pull her hair out.’
The eight-year-old has also injured her little brother without realising the hurt she is causing.
‘Sometimes she confines herself to her room and won’t come out and that can go on for weeks. That means I’m confined to the house with the little fellow and can’t get out to do the shopping or to the post office to collect my carer’s allowance.’
Her daughter is also lacking in the hormone melatonin which promotes sleep and often doesn’t go to sleep until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, wakening at 9am. ‘If she’s awake, I’m awake,’ says Mary Jane.
She recalls how she dropped off to sleep last year and woke up to find the kitchen on fire after her daughter had put toys in the microwave.
‘I’ve been waiting 14 months to see a paediatrician to get medication to help her.’
Fed up with waiting for the appropriate treatment for her child, Mary Jane says her only hope is to pay to get the speech and behaviour therapy her daughter needs.
‘My brother is a pastor in Drogheda and he has set up a GoFundMe page called Give Mary Kate A Voice. I’m asking people to support that page so she can get the treatment she needs. If she doesn’t get it now, the window of opportunity will be lost.’