Independence backed by support for people with intellectual disabilities translates to improved quality of life. Michelle McDonagh reports
The audience award for best film at the 2004 Edinburgh Film Festival went to Inside I'm Dancing, the heart-warming story of two young disabled men who manage to outwit the system, move out of a residential home and into their own flat.
One young woman who thoroughly enjoyed the film was Marie Wolfe whose own dream of moving into an apartment under an independent living programme finally materialised after she fought for it for many years.
The Brothers of Charity in Galway provide employment, residential and support services for children and adults with intellectual disabilities including Marie. Originally from London, she was living semi-independently in a flat attached to one of the organisation's residential homes in Spiddal until she recently got her own apartment in Ballybrit.
Advocacy coordinator with the Brothers of Charity, Josephine Flaherty explains: "Marie is the first person I know of in the services who decided that she wanted to leave where she was living and managed to move into a more independent programme in the city.
"In the past, the management and staff would have made this decision for her but the services, internationally and nationally, are moving towards more involvement of the service users in the decision-making process."
Marie has become increasingly independent over the past few years. She cooks for herself, has a bus pass and has learnt the bus routes, has a mobile phone and a bank card in case she runs out of money and needs a taxi.
"Traditionally, Marie would not have been accommodated, it only happens for a few. A good many of our service users will never be able for that kind of independence, but everybody with the right support and training is able for a little more than they are doing at the moment," Flaherty comments.
Heavily involved in self advocacy, Marie speaks out for people who are not as well able to represent themselves as she is. She has spoken at a number of national conferences, including the recent Brothers of Charity service-users conference.
She says: "Even if people aren't as independent as I am, they should have a good quality of service and should be able to make their own choices, it's a basic right for every person with a disability. There are people in the services who haven't moved on at all and really want to move into more independent living and I think that's very sad."
Although Marie is currently working on a community employment scheme in the John Paul Centre in Galway, she has much higher hopes for herself. She would love to do more public speaking and public relations work on behalf of people with learning disabilities and her dream is to go on RTÉ Radio One's Pat Kenny Show to talk about her experience of living with a learning disability.
Christina Burke used to live in a flat in Gort, Co Galway but she was always looking forward to moving in with Marie. She works four days a week as a storeroom assistant at the Brothers of Charity Centre in Kilcornan, Clarinbridge, but would love to work with computers.
As Galway representative on the National Association of the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland, Christina highlights some of the issues that service users like herself have to contend with on a daily basis - such as lack of privacy, labelling, finances, lack of choice of accommodation and even curfews.
Christina and Marie are both members of a self advocacy group which meets once every week or so in Galway and also of the Service Users Council which was founded in 1998 to deal with the issues raised at the local meetings.
Anne Mahon lives in a residential home with four others in Gort and works at the Appletree Training Centre in the town making labels for a ceramics company.
"I like my work and I like the house where I live. I had the experience of living at home with my parents and that was nice as well, but as our parents get older, we like to move on. The staff in my house are very nice and if I want privacy, I can get it," she says.
Joseph Doherty has been in and out of institutional care with the Brothers of Charity since 1958 when he moved into their residential centre at Kilcornan. He started working as a kitchen porter in the Salthill Hotel in 1975, a job he enjoyed for over 11 years until the hard work and the long hours became too much for him.
He now works three days a week recycling cardboard and paper at Galway Crystal.
Joseph moved into one of the organisation's homes in Ballybane for a while with five other other men and although he enjoyed that experience, he had to move back into Kilcornan in 1994 because, as he admits himself, he was drinking too much and was not able to look after himself properly.
Joseph doesn't particularly like living back in the centre, he finds it too noisy and would love to live in his own apartment. But what he misses, most of all, is being able to get out for a drive or a drink when he wants.
A volunteer brings him out on a Sunday afternoon once a month and he really looks forward to those days because it's up to him where they will go and what they will do that day.