East Cork Cope centre 'not being safely managed', Hiqa finds

Hiqa published 28 reports finding good practice in some centres but raising serious concerns about gaps in others.

Inspectors who visited the East Cork Cope centre found “practices in place did not ensure all residents within the centre were protected from abuse”.

A key issue was challenging behaviour from one resident following a change in their personal circumstances.

The event which distressed this resident is not explained, but inspectors saw that their behaviour was having “a negative impact on peers” and not all staff were aware of new supports devised for this person.

“One resident had self-referred for psychology support as they were finding the situation in the centre difficult to navigate,” the report said.

The inspectors said that overall management systems to “ensure the service was safe, appropriate to the assessed needs, consistent and effectively monitored” were not in place.

Documents they saw indicated that when staff raised concerns around “quality and safety of care support”, no follow-up actions were taken.

A Cope Foundation centre in the north of Cork City was compliant in most areas examined, but concerns were raised around medication in both guidance and storage.

“Some errors were noted on the prescription records for residents, such as an oral drug being recorded as for administration rectally,” inspectors found.

Concerns were also identified in four centres run by the Brothers of Charity Services Ireland CLG, including in Cork.

At a unit on No 4 Fuchsia Drive in Innishannon, inspectors found clear signs that staff had “challenges” in dealing with how residents behave.

“One such incident involved a staff member locking themselves into the staff office in response to the presentation of the resident.

“This indicated that the staff member was not equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to support the resident around their behaviour,” the report said.

Inspectors saw paperwork on strategies to help this resident, but they were from 2020 and did not appear to have been updated.

An internal service review had indicted for example that “staff needed further training in positive behaviour support and autism” while another document said that “additional training in particular communication methods” were needed.

Transport was also an issue here, with a car available for taking residents to visit family but it emerged during the inspection not all staff could drive, meaning “sometimes residents could not go out if staff on duty could not drive”.

All inspection reports can be read on the Hiqa website.