Children’s Services, Mary O’Dwyer, Manager of Children’s Services
	St. Joseph’s Foundation provides a variety of services to children with an intellectual disability who are 0-18 years of age and living within our catchment area.  These services are delivered in the home, in our Respite centre, in our campus based pre-school and school, or in community-based pre-schools and schools. These services include the following; EARLY INTERVENTION A child referred to our service will first be visited in the home by a Social Worker. The Social Worker will support the family in deciding what kind of services they would like to receive from the Foundation. After this initial visit the Psychologist will usually visit next and will then refer onto the relevant therapist such as Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist and Community Nurse. PRE-SCHOOL The Padre Pio Pre-school is based on our campus in Baker’s Road, Charleville. Children from 2 to 6 years attend the pre-school from 1 to 4 days a week. The Pre-school is staffed with qualified personnel and has a high staff to child ratio. Multi-disciplinary team members (Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech & Language Therapist, Community Nurse and Psychologist) work in the pre-school and liaise with the staff. Children’s progress and programmes are reviewed on a regular basis. COMMUNITY PRE-SCHOOL Many of the children attending our services have dual attendance at our specialised pre-school and their own local community pre-school. The Community Nurse liaises between the pre-schools and parents.  Some children may require a pre-school facilitator to support their attendance at community pre-school.   Some children attend only community pre-school. In these cases the Community Nurse liaises with the pre-school.  A pre-school facilitator will be provided if needed subject to available funding.   In each case, children’s progress and programmes are reviewed on a regular basis. HOME SUPPORT Home support is provided to families who need support caring for their child in their own home.  A certain number of hours are allocated per week. These can be used for a variety of purposes depending upon the needs of the family. RESPITE/RESIDENTIAL CARE Cooleens is a purpose- built house in Charleville for the provision of Respite care. It is open 7 nights a week. Tir Na Og, Thomastown, Kilmallock is open 7 nights a week to care for four children at a time. The Comhar Centre provides a limited residential service to four children. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS NEW PRE-SCHOOL AND WORKPLACE CRECHE  Funding is currently being pursued under the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 to construct a purpose-built pre-school for children with disabilities. Contact: Ms. Mary O’Dwyer, Manager of Children Services, St. Joseph's Foundation, Baker’s Road, Charleville, Co. Cork. Phone: 063-89252 Email: modwyer@stjosephsfoundation.ie Return to the top of the page