Clare Crusaders receives no grant for €5,000 Covid-19 clinic upgrade

 

UPGRADING works costing an estimated €5,000 were completed in Clare Crusaders’ Barefield clinic to ensure it has a high standard of compliance with Covid-19 infection control procedures.

Walls and floors were cleaned and repainted during extension renovations following the closure of the clinic last March due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Clinic manager, Councillor Ann Norton confirmed a lot of improvement works have been completed to ensure the place is clean, tidy and health, and to ensure safety measures are up to a high standard for the return of parents and children.

While the clinic has applied for a number of re-start grants to help defray the cost of complying with Covid-19 regulations, Councillor Norton admitted the absence of any official sanction is extremely “frustrating”.

“Irrespective of whether we are a charity, we still operate as a business and our staff pay PAYE, PRSI, USC and yet we getting nothing back for providing what is a free service.

“There is very little happening for families with special needs children. Very few services are open. While the HSE are doing testing and tracing, our children still deserve to be getting a service regardless of what is happening.

“The majority of the children we work with need ongoing therapy. We have children with physical disabilities that still need intervention from a physiotherapist, which has not been happening.

Speech and language therapy is vital for these children and unfortunately, it is not being provided.

“We are very conscious of this and want to get back to providing a service that is crucial for the standard of care these children deserve,” she said.

With most of the traditional forms of fundraising involving large groups of people now off limits due to Covid-19 restrictions, the clinic is considering a number of novel imaginative fundraisers that will not involve large congregations of people meeting in the one place.

The clinic is hoping to put a new six-week programme in place for teenagers that need stimulation such as yoga, pilates, aerobics and arts and crafts to deal with the lack of social interaction.

While the Clare Local Enterprise Office has provided a lot of assistance with project management and links with advice, the clinic doesn’t fulfill their criteria either for funding.

The clinic closed at the end of March as the charity didn’t want to put their staff, children and their families at risk of contracting the virus.

Councillor Norton admitted it will be a major challenge to fundraise during the Covid-19 pandemic and will require a lot of time and effort to ascertain what is the best way to secure more funding as a self-funded charitable organisation.

All the therapists went on the government’s Covid-19 payment following advice from their accountant and a discussion with Councillor Norton.

“We are always very tuned in to what is happening on the ground because we are parents of children with special needs. We do see and are living the various issues affecting children with special needs,” she said.

It was felt at the time this was the best course of action to avoid dipping in to the charity’s existing reserves.

Even though the clinic was closed management keep in ongoing contact with their staff to see how they were doing.

Councillor Norton said no one had any idea Covid-19 would go on as long as it did. Initially, the clinic was preparing to roll out summer camps in July in conjunction with the Summer Scheme or July Provision, which it was previously called that proved to be a “mess”.

However, when all the logistics were examined it wasn’t financially viable at the time so they didn’t proceed with any camps, which had been run for about ten years.

This was a service that parents relied on during the summer months as it kept children with special needs in a routine during holidays that can be difficult for them for another month.

Councillor Norton described the absence of the summer camps as a “big upheaval” for parents and children as schools were forced to shut in mid March due to Covid-19.

A decision was taken to re-open the clinic on August 31. A few hours later, the government made another announcement requesting the charity to postpone the resumption of its service until September 13.

However, Councillor Norton decided to stick to her original decision to try and put a structure in place and to prepare therapists as to how they would recommence working with families.

 

Dan Danaher