Highland Families Disappointed as Respite Care Remains Unavailable

Families lack overnight care for special needs kids. This hurts lives in the north Highlands, they say. Elizabeth Jones said the council let them down. Thurso’s Thor House is still closed.

Jones knows a mom whose kids went into care. She thinks respite could have prevented that. Jones feels bad for her; she needed support. The council plans to restart respite by summer. Jones doubts that will happen.

Jones says she pushed for a timeline for months. Nothing happened. She runs Caithness and Sutherland Respite Campaign. Her two kids have severe autism. Four years ago, she moved to Thurso, next to Thor House.

Then, they stopped respite before she used it. Her son Ollie got his autism diagnosis at four. Since then, they have struggled. Ollie’s dad quit his job to help look after Ollie. He may sell his house.

Jones is caring for their three-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Jones thinks the council treated them badly. She believes the council misled them. No Limits Caithness closed its daycare last May. This made things worse.

Jones complained to the Scottish Ombudsman. She claimed the council wasn’t fulfilling its duty. The ombudsman closed her complaint. The council said they would restart respite soon then. An east Sutherland man talked about Thor House’s help. They cared for his autistic son.

Thor House provided transport too. This helped families far away. They took kids on trips; the children loved it. Regular visits helped his son, now an adult. It helped his whole family too. He feels for families without the service now.

Excluding schooling, disabilities services are absent. Private carers are hard to find now. Will respite come back by summer? He is unsure. He expects hurdles and further delays. The council says they are working on the service.

They plan to reopen it by late spring or early summer. Respite stopped in 2021 during the pandemic. They reviewed special needs care then. Thor House housed children in care.