Gerry Keane
Childrens Services
Programme Manager
Saint John of God Dublin South East provides services to children with an intellectual disability in a variety of different ways. We offer support to families of children from birth to 18 years attending the service, through an Early Years Programme, a Family Focused Outreach Programme and Childrens Respite.
Children’s services have gone through significant changes in the recent months with the roll-out of the HSE National project ‘Progressing Disability Services’. Children’s clinical services are now offered from local Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNT) which are geographcially based. For more information, see Tell Me About the PDS Programme
Early Services
The specialised pre-schoool Kildarton offers a play based holistic approach to pre-school education for children from 3-5 years. Each child receives an indiviudalised programme, with supports also extended to parents, siblings and grandparents.
These services are offered to children living within the Saint John of God Dublin South East catchment area who have been accepted into the service through the Children’s SAATC process (see information on the right of page).
Family Focus
We have designed and developed specialised versions of the Parents Plus programme for families of children with intellectual disabilities. The Parents Plus programme is a parenting programme which concentrates on supporting parents to manage children’s behaviour and to enjoy the fun and rewards of parenting. We have adapted the programme for parents of children with special needs, and we have been invited to present at national conferences to showcase this customisation.
We provide limited support to children in mainstream pre-schools and mainstream primary and secondary schools. Most support in mainstream schools is provided by Department of Education teachers and special needs assistants.
Children’s Respite
Sometimes families need a break and sometimes children need a chance to play with their friends and have sleepover or a holiday. We have purpose built children’s respite, clubs and other options for children after school.
