Don’t shut down Áras Attracta
One family’s surprising plea to end upheaval for their sister, Ivy, who was mistreated at centre
THE sister of one of the Áras Attracta residents who was assaulted in the infamous Bungalow 3 is calling on the HSE not to close the centre following reforms.
Breege Dolan’s sister Ivy was filmed being sat on by a male manager in horrifying RTÉ footage broadcast in 2014. At the time Ivy was clearly distressed, and was even seen being refused permission to go to the bathroom.
The manager, Pat McLoughlin, is currently appealing a four-month prison sentence, handed down for assault in February.
Now Breege believes that the HSE simply wants people to forget what happened there, and doesn’t believe the centre should be allowed to close completely.
Reports on the controversial Co. Mayo centre, published this week, set out a timetable for its closure in spite of ongoing change.
While the report authors are confident everyone in the centre is suitable for independent living with the proper support, Breege says her sister and a small number of others are sadly not in this category.
She said: ‘We are happy with all the changes in the last while. Ivy was moved out of Bungalow 3, she’s only just settling now in the new house. It’s a fine place now, the staff who are there at the moment... I could not run them down.’
The unit in the sprawling campus where Ivy and other residents were abused was known as Bungalow 3.
‘That is made into offices now, management and staff now use it. They think that by doing that we are going to forget Bungalow 3; we will never forget what happened there. Never, never and that is for sure.
‘I can still see it, sometimes I wake up in the night. Some days I’m alright, some days it just hits me – not just me, it’s our whole family,’ Breege said.
Ivy is non-verbal, and communicates with trusted carers or family by gesture only. The review reports suggest Áras Attracta should be closed over time. The plan says 27 residents will transfer this year to independent living with support.
Breege said: ‘Ivy is very relaxed there now, uprooting her would be the wrong thing to do. This report came as a bombshell – our worry would be who is going to look after her?
‘We’re very happy with the staff at the moment, you can see the difference in Ivy. So we’re very upset to hear it will close quite soon, and so are other families. There was a meeting on Saturday, and people were asking the same questions.’
The distraught sister added: ‘Ivy has to depend on someone for the rest of her life, she cannot speak. She can’t speak, she can’t tell us things, that’s the real sad part about it. They’re saying in the reports about opening bank accounts for residents but that is of no benefit to her. Unfortunately she can’t do things for herself.’
Monitoring of what happens behind closed doors is a big concern for Breege. She described Áras Attracta as ‘the most watched place’ in the HSE at the moment, but worries what will happen when everyone is scattered.
She said: ‘HIQA can go in and out of there, we visit whenever we want – that’s why we’re relaxed now. We don’t want Ivy to go out somewhere else.’
In late 2014 covert filming by RTÉ’s Prime Time Investigations Unit revealed shocking abuse of vulnerable residents at the centre. In footage many found hard to watch, non-verbal residents with intellectual disabilities were seen being pushed around, shoved and even sat upon while their requests were ignored.
This was in a unit known as Bungalow 3; a unit which sits in a row of other units, sharing a car park. Investigation by the HSE followed, and Dr Kevin McCoy was appointed to head an independent review group which began work in March 2015.
Three reports from this group were published on Tuesday. The main report on Áras Attracta found management was not visible on the campus, and some staff were then free to act in inappropriate ways. Investigators found residents could not live a full life, and management had no clear vision for life on the campus.
One of the recommendations for the HSE is that staff currently working with any service being closed should transfer to the community, but only if they wish to do so.
The HSE said in the report they are committed to making Áras Attracta as effective as possible,
‘Uprooting her would be the wrong thing to do’ ‘Most watched place in the HSE at the moment’
and to carrying out transfers as soon as is practical. Their assessment is that some residents will require ‘significant additional supports’ and ‘extensive preparation time’ but less so for others.
The HSE also noted: ‘It must be acknowledged that a number of residents’ families are apprehensive about community living. Hence time will need to be given to support these residents and their families while… considering the best option for the resident in line with their will and preference.’