Families of young adults with special educational needs feel pressure due lack of care and choice

Families of young adults with special educational needs are facing a void of available support, and little hope of getting any in the near future.

The Department of Health's decision to close Muckamore Abbey Hospital in Co Antrim has placed further pressure the availability of appropriate community settings and care for vulnerable adults.

The hospital, which provided inpatient facilities for adults with learning difficulties, is the subject of a long-running criminal investigation and an ongoing public inquiry into the abuse of vulnerable patients.

Its closure was recommended, but has further revealed the strains on a system under pressure.

Sandra Lennon's son Caolan has autism and severe learning difficulties and needs round the clock care, a job she says is "exhausting". Caolan is now 19 - the age that schooling for people with severe learning difficulties officially ends in Northern Ireland - as opposed to 21 in England.

Sandra has also found it a struggle to find him assisted community care - which would help him lead a more independent life - as well as some respite for her.

"Health and Social Care Trusts and the government know these young people are coming through the system," says Shirelle Stewart of the National Autistic Society, "but yet there's no long term planning been put in place."

A social care system, lacking in resources and staffing is failing many families like Sandra Lennon's. Sandra just wants Caolan to be able to live the best life he can. But at the minute that is proving almost impossible.

"Young people like Caolan with moderate to severe learning disabilities, there's no one speaking up for them.

"Because they can't speak, they're forgotten within the system."

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