Debate contribution: Woodlawn House, Dungannon: Post-19 Adult Respite Provision

Debate contribution by Ms Aoife Finnegan on 14 October 2025.

MLA

Ms Aoife Finnegan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

14 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Woodlawn House, Dungannon: Post-19 Adult Respite Provision

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5181298

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for securing the Adjournment debate on an important topic that has caused real worry and distress for families in the Southern Trust area and that speaks to a wider failure in how we support people with additional needs and their carers. Just last week, an 80-year-old mother contacted me in desperation. Her daughter, who is 40 years of age, has complex and additional needs and attends Woodlawn House in Dungannon. For that mother, Woodlawn House is not simply providing a service. Rather, it is her lifeline. It is her only respite, as it provides her with a few hours of relief that allow her to keep going. She told me, however, that respite provision at Woodlawn is regularly being cancelled. Think about that: an elderly woman, who has devoted her entire life to caring for her daughter, now faces uncertainty and exhaustion every single week, never knowing whether the one short break on which she depends will happen. Her story is not unique. One of my constituents in south Armagh, a young man with additional needs, is regularly offered a dementia care unit for respite, which is not an appropriate setting for his needs. That highlights the lack of suitable, specialised provision for adults with complex needs. Families right across our communities — mothers, fathers, sisters and so on — are holding the line every single day. They do so out of love, but they cannot be expected to do so alone. When respite provision is withdrawn, placements are cancelled, and it is then the carers who carry the burden and the most vulnerable who suffer. Woodlawn is a vital facility. It was established to provide short breaks so as to prevent crises, but it is now under immense strain, not because of any failings on the part of staff, who do incredible work, but because the system is broken. That is not morally, financially or socially acceptable: it is not morally acceptable, because every person who has additional and complex needs deserves to live with stability, dignity and continuity of care; it is not financially acceptable, because out-of-area placements cost millions that could be invested in strengthening local services; and it is not socially acceptable, because families are being pushed to breaking point when they do not know whether they will get suitable respite provision for their loved ones. That is not what compassionate care looks like.

The situation is not suitable. It is not good enough. We need urgent action: not more reviews, but real investment and reform. Woodlawn needs guaranteed continuity of service and an assurance that respite will be protected and not treated as optional. Behind every statistic is a person. We cannot turn away from the issue. We owe it to those families to do better, to protect respite and to strengthen Woodlawn and other centres like it, making sure that every person with additional and complex needs is supported, valued and given the opportunity to live their best possible life. That is what those families deserve and what we must deliver.

511 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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