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Nursing Team) and the Children's Hospice specialising in multidisciplinary
care and support of children with life limiting conditions.
As the number of children with complex health care needs grows, so
too does the need for shared care services where children can have
short breaks in family based or small group settings. The challenge to
social care services is to find and support such placements through
the training of support carers who will inspire the confidence of the
children and families who are dependent on them.
Development of services for children with learning disabilities
More so than other children who are disabled, children with learning
disabilities face many barriers to full participation in society.
Traditionally they have suffered from poorly planned and coordinated
services in which there was little choice or control for
children and their families. Where there are no chronic conditions,
their health care needs have often not been adequately met. As far
as health and social care services are concerned they have often been
the most forgotten of the forgotten children.
The Mental Health Act (NI) 1948 gave the Northern Ireland Hospitals
Authority responsibility for all mental health services, including
services for 'persons requiring special care'. Services to the latter were
administered by a sub group of the Hospitals Authority known as the
Special Care Authority. Muckamore House, now Muckamore Abbey
Hospital opened in 1949 for the care of 'mental defectives.' Caul and
Herron (1997) note that the redistribution of responsibilities meant
that services were largely hospital based: 'to parents this had the
virtue of simplicity and continuity since one organisation had
responsibility for mentally handicapped people from the cradle to the
grave. However, the system also had the unfortunate effect of
segregating mentally handicapped people from the rest of society,
both in regarding hospital as appropriate "residential care" and in
having segregated education in "Special Care" schools.'
Many children who were unable to be cared for at home remained
institutionally based until the community care reforms of the late
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