Enable Ireland Cork Children’s Services

Enable Ireland Children’s Services in Cork currently offer a wide range of services for over 380 children and their families living in Cork city and county.

The interdisciplinary teams working with children and their families offer assessments, early years education, training and support services including early intervention, child and adolescence services and respite to children with a primary physical disability who need an ongoing team based intervention.

In addition to the core service we offer a range of specialist services from the centre. These include consultant paediatric consultant clinics, neuro-muscular clinics, ophthalmology and orthoptic services. For children in the service we also offer orthopaedic spasticity management including the use of Botulinum toxin type A and eating, drinking and swallowing services. Delivering these services brings together the skills of the whole team.

At present there are over 380 children and their families actively using our services. A person-centred approach is the basis of our service model. We work through an interdisciplinary team approach and ensure the children, their parents and carers are partners with us and at the centre of what we do. Our services are developed and delivered within a quality framework and underpinned by the most up to date research based evidence

Each family in our service is offered a Key Worker. This is a member of the team that parents can contact directly. They are there to help and support parents. In line with Enable Ireland’s core values each child will have an individual service plan. These plans are agreed with the service user, their family and the therapy team. They are regularly reviewed and reflect the children’s changing needs. The service plan for each child and their parents and carers form the contract of service delivery with each individual and their family.

Currently we have four main teams in Children’s Services. Babies and young children up to the age of 3 years are supported by the Early Intervention Team. The members of the team work with parents and the children to begin assessment and offer advice, support and agreed treatment and service programmes. Older children and teenagers are supported by other teams.

Each team brings together the skills and experience of a psychologist, a social worker, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech & language therapist, early years educator, nurse, complementary therapist and support staff.

For children 2 to 6 years old, our Specialist Early Years Educators offer some centre based specialist early educational groups in addition to providing ongoing support to children in community based early educational settings. They also devise in-home teaching programmes in consideration of each child's whole development. They also work to embed specific developmental targets into these play based home programmes.

We recognise that many parents and children attending the service will need different supports at different times. The first member of the team to contact families is usually the Social Worker. The Social worker will offer practical advice and support as well as advocate for and support parents and carers.

One of the supports that is important to parents and carers and greatly enjoyed by children is our Respite Service. Enable Ireland Cork has a centred based respite house based at Lavanagh House in Ballintemple. This is available for children attending the service. We are currently also able to provide limited in-home support service for children up to the age of 5 years.

Cork Services Staff Training and Development

Staff are our most valuable resource. Through our local Staff Training and Development Forum we encourage and support staff to access a range of professional development opportunities. By supporting our staff to develop new skills we ensure the ongoing quality of our service.