A Monaghan mother is at her "wits end" over the lack of specialist education and respite care in County Monaghan. Her son, Tommy has been diagnosed autistic, with ADHD and sensory processing disorder. Tommy also doesn't sleep at night, suffers from anxiety and has no sense of danger so requires round the clock care. Hannah's husband is also recovering at home after he was struck down with a condition that left him paralysed and on a ventilator.
County Monaghan currently doesn't have a dedicated special educational needs school nor a respite centre where Tommy could get an education and care and the rest of his family respite. Hannah told the Joe Finnegan Show there are a lot of "Tommies" and "Tomasinas" in Monaghan but most local politicians and the HSE aren't listening.
"We have nothing in Monaghan," an exasperated Hannah told the Joe Finnegan Show, "It's sad, in this day and age, that there are families like mine suffering. I'm sick of it. I'm tired. I did not want to go down the route of going to the media. I did what everyone said to do and I went to the politicians, banging on their doors and they're going only so far because you're dealing with a completely different animal in the HSE."
