Victory for the Mail!
After we shone a light on the threat to a Home for the elderly, the unit will now stay open – and ‘lo-call’ numbers will be scrapped too
THE Minister for mental health and older people, Jim Daly, has confirmed in writing that the Rosalie Unit in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, will not now be closing.
The residential centre for elderly people experiencing mental health difficulties has been at the centre of a local HSE and political storm for more than three years.
In 2015, families of the residents at the unit were told by then junior health minister, Kathleen Lynch, they had her firm commitment that the residential unit would stay open and remain an integral part of mental health services in the Roscommon area.
A letter supporting Ms Lynch’s promise was later received by Roscommon County Council from the office of the then minister for health, Leo Varadkar. But just over a year later, it became obvious to service users and staff that no new admissions were being accepted.
It took several months and the persistence of local Fine Gael Senator Maura Hopkins before HSE West finally admitted an embargo had been in place on new residents being admitted to the Rosalie since September 2016.
As detailed in a number of news features published by the Irish Daily Mail, families and locals in Roscommon were devastated to discover that the promises that had been made by government in 2015 had been broken.
They questioned HSE West’s claim that outreach teams would be put in place to take care of the future needs of pensioners with mental health difficulties.
And they expressed concern about where their loved ones, currently being cared for at the centre, would be sent once they had been assessed.
Head of HSE West Tony Canavan last week claimed on local radio that a long-term decision to close the centre had already been taken, and that the 12 remaining residents had been assessed – with a report waiting to be independently reviewed.
Once done, decisions on their future would then be taken.
On Monday night, however, at a large public meeting in Castlerea town, Communications Minister and local Independent TD, Denis Naughten, said that he had met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar earlier that day and had secured his commitment that the unit would not be closing.
Liam Walsh, whose mother Breda has lived at the centre since 2009, said: ‘There was a huge crowd at that meeting and when the minister announced that he had talked to Taoiseach Varadkar and had his assurances, it met with a very muted response.
‘That’s because we don’t believe anyone any more, the HSE or the Government, we’re so disillusioned with them all.’
Mr Walsh, however, did say they were massively relieved that their three-year battle had finally come to an end.
‘It means the existing residents can stay there,’ he explained.
‘And that there will be long-term geriatric care in this area going into the future.
‘The Rosalie Unit will never fall below 15 beds again,’ Mr Walsh said.
‘It’s important for everyone in this county. It wasn’t about one politician or me, or anyone else.
‘It was purely and utterly about doing the right thing.
‘We never asked for one thing more than we had been promised back in 2015.
‘That’s what we were expecting and hoping for and that’s what we have now been told by a minister of this Government,’ he said.
‘It’s a massive relief and it shows you what can happen when people come together for what’s right. The HSE don’t seem to co-operate with anyone.
‘We need to start again, knock it down and build it again.
‘The current regime is a fiasco, from bed shortages, service shortages, mismanagement and too many clandestine decisions being made,’ he added.
‘I was in the unit today and one of the residents, Willie, who has been following what has been going on, came up to me and asked: “Well Liam, can I stay here or are they sending me some place else?” When I told him he could rest easy, he wasn’t going anywhere, you could see the stress flowing out of her body.
‘For some of them, it has been such a stressful time.
‘I just hope that this is the end of it now,’ Mr Walsh said.
At centre of political storm for years ‘The current regime is a fiasco’