DISABILITY SERVICES PROGRAMME OF CARE

The programme offers services predominately to the adult population and covers a range of disabilities that are reflected in teams for:

A further service is provided by the programme to children with disabilities.

FIELDWORK SERVICES FOR PHYSICAL DISABILITY

There are a number of teams within the Trust who provide services for those people who have a physical disability.

PHYSICAL DISABILITY TEAM

John Mitchel Place – Tel: 30834200

The team works with people who have both an acquired and congenital disability. Whilst acknowledging the limitations of people who have a disability, their prime objective is to enable disabled people to live as full, rewarding and independent a life as possible. The team are committed to enabling individuals retain as much control over their lives as possible.

Referrals are made from a variety of sources, and once received the client is assessed, a statement of need drawn up, and a care plan devised to meet individual needs. Emphasis is on working with multi-disciplinary colleagues and involving the client and their carers in assessment and devising packages of services to meet their needs. Cases are reviewed annually.

To this end, the team offers a range of services which are flexible, and responsive to the needs of individuals and their carers include the following:

SENSORY IMPAIRMENT TEAM – Tel: 30250800

The sensory impairment team, is based in the Conifers Resource Centre, Dromalane, offering a service to people who experience difficulties as a result of poor hearing, sight or both.

The primary aim of the Conifers is to enable people to cope with their disability and lead as normal a life as possible. Rehabilitation is therefore one of the key functions of the Conifers as a facility and services provided from there are geared towards promoting maximum independence. The team is responsible for dealing with people of all age ranges and across all programmes of care.

Services for Hearing Impaired People

Conifers Resource Centre – Tel: 30250800

Services for people with hearing loss fall into several sub-categories and intervention is provided accordingly. These include Deaf without speech, Deaf with Speech, Hard of Hearing and Tinnitus Sufferers.

Services for Deaf People - Newry and Mourne Trust has one of the strongest deaf clubs in Northern Ireland and is attracting numerous deaf people from other Trusts within the Board. Formed in 1989 and based at The Orchard Centre it provides a vocal point for all Profoundly Deaf people in the Newry and Mourne area. The club has about 20-30 members, all of whom use some form of sign language, it provides the foundation for both the consolidation and development of signed communication which has proven effective in reducing isolation caused by Deafness. The members of the Deaf community are active in the promotion of rights and access for deaf people and have attracted significant monies from P and R funds to buy in interpreters as well as IT equipment. The club and its members are actively supported by The Conifers staff.

Hard of hearing - The Conifers staff, provide services in relation to the assessment and provision of assistive listening equipment which has been designed to improve a persons ability to hear. The provision of equipment is unique to Social Services and The Conifers staff have developed technical skills which have no doubt improved the quality of clients lives. Most of the referrals to the team are received from the Audiology Department at Daisy Hill Hospital and the multi-disciplinary framework which exits between both departments has clearly resulted in hundreds of people experiencing a richness in their lives which had been lost because of their hearing loss.

Tinnitus - A Tinnitus Support group meets monthly at The Conifers and is attended by 15-20 people.

Services for Visually Impaired People

Conifers Resource Centre – Tel: 30250800

Services to people with a sight loss are subdivided into 2 groups, ie, blind and partially sighted,

On receipt of referral, a comprehensive assessment of need is carried out by a team member which includes a detailed assessment from a Consultant on the nature of the client’s sight loss. The Consultant also identifies at this stage whether the client is Registered as either Blind or Partially Sighted. Once this information has been received from the Consultant and depending on a client’s degree of sight loss, their physical and psychological ability to cope, the process of rehabilitation can then commence. A comprehensive programme of rehabilitation is designed to meet the individual’s needs and can be carried out in a group setting or at the person’s own home

All staff are actively engaged in group work in order to minimise isolation caused by sight loss and within the Newry and Mourne area there are 4 groups for Visually Impaired people that meet on a regular basis. Two groups are based in Newry, 1 in Crossmaglen and the other in Kilkeel.

HEALTH CARE TEAM

Daisy Hill Hospital (Tel: 30835000)

The Health Care Team is a hospital social work team based within Daisy Hill Hospital. The hospital has 275 in-patient beds (excluding the day procedure unit) which provides a range of maternity, paediatric, general surgery, general medicine, rehabilitation services and a stroke unit.

In addition, the Renal Unit has 22 beds providing dialysis to 73 patients.

The Health Care Team provides a professional social work service to all of these wards and to a number of outpatients’ clinics and Accident and Emergency.

CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES TEAM – Dromalane House Tel: 30825000

The children’s disability team are committed to providing a range of quality services to disabled children and their families to minimise the impact of the disability and to maximise opportunities for growth and development of the child.

This team is currently located within ground floor accommodation at Dromalane House and has total responsibility for service delivery to children throughout the Trust area.

Upon receipt of a referral, a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the child and the family is undertaken. A plan of intervention, or provision of services, will be agreed to assist the child and family, which is subject to regular review and evaluation. Whilst the overall aim is to maximise independence in a significant number of cases service provision may be on a long-term basis given the complex and challenging needs, which exist.

Range of Services provided:

Emotional support – providing support either at birth or at time of diagnosis is essential in helping parents come to terms with the situation.

Respite Care – this is provided through 2 schemes:-

Shared Care Scheme - provides support to parents and carers through the provision of short-term placements in specialist foster placements.

Orana Respite Care Centre – this is a small residential unit with four beds. These beds are under contract to the Trust for the provision of specialist residential placements to children with learning disabilities.

These placements are invaluable to families and are a major feature of service provision, which aims to maintain children within the community.

Wraparound – Tel: 37414564

This is an all inclusive scheme, which provides multi-disciplinary/inter-agency provision based in Orana House.

Supported Playgroup Provision

Early intervention in pre-school placements has been invaluable in helping children achieve progress and develop. The Trust provides one to one workers to ensure that children can be accommodated with their peers in playgroups in local community centres.

DAY CARE

Millview Day Centre: Located in the ‘model’ village Bessbrook, it offers 30 places, 5 days per week with 6 WTE staff. Millview serves people from the South Armagh, Newry, South Down area and operates at 100% occupancy on the 5 days.

Tel: 30 830347

Binnian Lodge, Kilkeel Providing 12 places, 4 days per week, with 2 WTE staff. Tel: 417 65473.

LEARNING DISABILITY SERVICES

The provision of services to people with learning disability in the Newry and Mourne Area is from a wide range of statutory and independent settings.

The focus of learning disability services is to help clients live an ordinary life in settings similar to other citizens by the provision of a range of imaginative and flexible services. A person centred planning approach is the method of choice for service provision, where the client along with their carer is involved in the completion of a comprehensive assessment and in designing a package of services to meet their needs.

Services

A range of services are provided:-

COMMUNITY SERVICES TEAM

John Mitchel Place (Tel: 30 834200)

This team is based at John Mitchel Place and consists of 2 team leaders (job-share), 5 social workers, 3 community learning disability nurses, 2 care managers, as well as 1 social worker and 1 social work assistant who are dedicated to respite services. Each team member acts as keyworker for a number of cases. The team provides a service to all adults 19 years plus, who require help and support and to their carers.

DAY CARE SERVICES

Day care services are provided both in-house and by independent providers. The age range is 17 years upwards. Their aim is to encourage the integration of attenders into their local community as far as possible, to maximise the development of personal, social and educational skills in line with individual potential and to offer respite to families and carers. Within Newry and Mourne Trust, in-house services account for the greater part of this provision.

Day care services are provided by the Trust at two main sites:

The Laurels – Tel: 302 61570

Situated within the Dromalane complex, the unit offers services to those people with a mild/moderate disability, and there is some provision for those who have an associated physical disability. The Laurels caters for the 19-65 age range. Within the unit, individuals are provided with a range of programmes to meet both assessed individual and group need.

This facility is dispersed across three sites:

Main site - Rathfriland Road, Newry

Satellite Unit - Crossmaglen

Independent Provision - Coach House Restaurant, Newry

SEC Social Education Centre Rathfriland Road, Newry (Tel: 302 61951)

This facility is dispersed across three sites:

SEC

At the main site services provide for 60 attenders within the age range 18 - 86 years.

The centre activities are provided for groups of attenders and cover the broad range of skills development in:

Care skills

Communication

Physiotherapy/Occupational therapy/Podiatry/Dental

Daily living skills

Arts/Crafts, Music

Leisure pursuits

Josephs Technicolor Dream Coat – Play produced by some clients who attend SEC

Crossmaglen Day Centre

Rathkeeland House, Crossmaglen - Tel: 30 868185

The Crossmaglen service is provided in a unit catering for 24 people each day. There are two groups at the facility. The level of ability among attenders is mixed in each group. This is primarily due to the fact that it is a local service for local people therefore the range of disability is reflected in each group.

The aim of the unit is to develop and support further inclusions in the local community. The community have responded very well to the facility which is now a feature of daily life in the town.

Independent Provision

Coach House Restaurant – Tel: 302 68114

Situated in a quiet cul-de-sac close to the City centre the restaurant has been operational for 15 years.

This service is a joint venture between the Management Committee and the Trust. A day care worker from the Social Education Centre is based in the restaurant with a remit to train attenders in the area of food preparation and handling. There are other staff who attend to the daily routines of the restaurant.

Prospects – Tel: 30252501

Small unit based in Newry. Attenders have a moderate level of ability and are in the younger age range.

Mencap – Tel: 30267077

Pathways Employment Service provides work placements for learning disabled people.

Cairnmount – Tel: 302 62705

Provides day care for 24 attenders from local nursing units.

Mourne Stimulus – Tel: 41765897

A group based at Kilkeel and offers 30 place for attenders. Offering a local service for local people the centre follows a varied range of activities.

Seaforte House

Provides day care for a number of its own residents in Warrenpoint.

NURSING/RESIDENTIAL SERVICES/SUPPORTED LIVING SCHEMES

Statutory Provision – Supported Living Schemes

Supporting People Services remains within the provision of the Disability Programme of Care.

The programme provides direct Supported Living service provision in 3 Schemes. The accommodation is outlined in the chart below:

	Core House Places	No. of persons in cluster homes	Total persons supported	Total cluster houses
Needham House, Newry	12	7 1 vacancy	19 1 cluster vacancy	5
Teach Sona Mullaghbawn	6	5	11	4
Shanlieve Kilkeel	5	5	10	2

The facilities continue to operate under a core and cluster model. A number of clients live in each core unit and a number of tenants living in locally based public or private housing are supported by staff from the core facility.

Private/Voluntary – Supported Living Schemes

Mourne Grange, Camphill Community, Kilkeel – Tel: 41760128

The scheme supports 64 adults with a learning disability on a long term basis.

Valuing Carers

In conjunction with Millview Resource Centre a bi-monthly ‘Carers’ Evening has been organised. At this event carers have the opportunity to meet with other carers and discuss issues. A key speaker also attends to provide information on a topic of interest.