Residents of a South-East Clare centre, which provides care for up to four people with intellectual disabilities, has found they were unable to disembark from a bus on a day trip, because of inadequate staffing.
Following an unannounced inspection by HIQA on February 11th , the Brothers of Charity Centre in Ardnacrusha was found to be non-compliant in six of seven areas in which it was assessed.
When visiting the Ardnacrusha centre in February, the inspector observed many examples of the positive measures put in place to support and advocate for the social care needs and wishes of residents.
One resident spoke highly of the assistance received from staff, but they also expressed unhappiness over the lack of staff support available, particularly at weekends.
Since the last inspection, which had flagged issues with staffing levels, the provider had implemented ad hoc arrangements to alleviate the issues relating to the lack of staffing resources, but these were found to be unreliable and didn’t significantly improve the lived experience of residents.
Residents attended day services during the day but once they returned in the afternoon they couldn’t leave the centre to access community activities as only one staff member was rostered to support them.
On one occasion residents went on a bus trip to a local attraction but were unable to get off the bus on arrival because there wasn’t enough staff to support them to access the area.
The centre was found to be not compliant in six of seven areas assessed.
Following the inspection, a business case was re-submitted to the HSE, which approved additional evening and weekend support hours which commenced from March.
