‘It was just a huge honour’

An end of era was celebrated in Roscrea last month as Cathy O’Donovan retired after a remarkable 47 years of caring for people with special needs in the community.

A woman widely known for the passion and compassion she had for her work, Cathy’s longevity in unlikely to be matched in future, even if she is one of several carers who started out with St Anne’s more than 40 years ago.

Her journey began in March 1979 when she was just 14. Her sister Hannah was working at the St Anne’s campus outside the town and used to bring home one of the residents with significant needs. The matron at the time, Sr Priscilla, invited Cathy out to experience St Anne’s for herself.

“Every day after school I used to cycle out and that’s where I got the grá for it,” Cathy recalled. “It was my first job, it was my last job, and I have to say that every day of that 47 years… it was electrifying.”

CHANGING TIMES

The service Cathy joined in 1979 was vastly different to that of today. She started out in the infant unit at St Anne’s. She worked a 12-hour day looking after babies in cots arranged line by line, dormitory-style. It is worth noting that many of the babies in those cots are now people in their 40s working in the local community.

Cathy progressed on to St Teresa’s Ward for young adults. She was solely responsible for looking after 14 of them. She then moved on to the villas at St Anne’s – which everyone at the time likened to a “five-star hotel” by comparison to the previous accommodation – for the next 20 years before the service underwent major change with the transition to community-centred care and supporting service users in their own homes.

This was a change for the better, said Cathy, who speaks enthusiastically of the benefits reaped by those in her care. “I’ve never seen them so happy,” she said. “Space, connection, family, open-door policy, people come to and from – it’s just marvellous to see uplift in those people that we are here to support.

“It’s just phenomenal to see the progression and the difference it makes. People have time, we’re able to go up and down the town, we’re able to do a lot more than we could do.”

‘DRIVING FORCE’

Michelle O’Brien, Service Manager with Avista, described Cathy as a “driving force” in advocating for that transition to community-centred care and making it work so well locally. They both spoke of how difficult this was at first; people in the community were generally slow to engage with the St Anne’s service users.

“Now they’re all great friends,” Cathy said. “It just took that period of time to build that relationship.”

The Roscrea native brought her service users out to the barber, the library and to work with community groups like the Men’s Shed. She always pushed the boat out in trying to find new activities for them to enjoy – literally once when she arranged a series of speed boat trips for a group of wheelchair users. She followed that up with helicopter rides for them.

Cathy talks about the joy such activities brought to the people in her care and the feeling she got when they smiled – “the lotto!” She loved seeing the progress made by each individual, even if it might have been slow progress at times.

“You must never, ever look at the disability, you must always look at the ability,” she advised. “You must always keep in the back of your mind that these people need support, they need guidance. And we get there. It might be a long process, but we do get there.”

‘NEVER SAY NO’

Cathy upheld that positive attitude throughout her long career, and she has numerous examples to cite of where patience and persistence yielded results. “Never say no,” became a motto of sorts for her. “It might take a little longer, but you will get there.”

Today, the Roscrea service that Cathy started out in is part of the Avista (formerly Daughters of Charity) national service for people with disabilities. The North Tipp/South Offaly service has both daycare and residential services offering support to adults with moderate to significant disability. It has three branches in Roscrea, two in Nenagh (with a third soon to open), two in Thurles and two in Birr.

“We try to support people in their locality,” Ms O’Brien said. “We work within a person’s ability and we build, and we’re always looking at scaffolding and building in line with what’s available in the community.”

There are presently 148 service users in North Tipp/South Offaly, and Cathy has worked with just about all of them. “They’re the best people you will ever meet in your life, the best company you will be in,” she said.

She described the modern day workload as much more manageable than that to which she became accustomed all those years ago, now with three staff to six individuals in the day service.

CHANGING ATTITUDES

Cathy’s profession is regulated to a far higher standard now than when she made her first foray into caring, even if everyone who followed in her footsteps has learned a great deal from the experience she earned over the decades. But perhaps the biggest change she has seen in that time is the shifting attitude of people in general towards those among us with disabilities.

“People are more understanding, people are more aware, people are more inclusive to us, and that’s lovely,” she said. “Forty years ago, they would be standing back. Society has changed, and all for the better. People are more understanding, people are better educated.”

Ms O’Brien made the point that people with disabilities have become much more “visible” in the community and the team at Avista in Roscrea are seeing the positive impact of that. “People will say: ‘Come on in for a cup of tea’. Would that happen 20 years ago? Very unlikely,” she said.

“People can be intimidated by disability, whether it’s physical, whether it’s intellectual – certain people can feel uncomfortable. But the more exposure, the more experience, that’s not so.”

In any event, the demand for Avista’s services in North Tipperary and South Offaly is growing all the time and Ms O’Brien said the local service is looking for new people to join and fulfil that role.

Anyone interested in continuing the legacy left by Cathy O’Donovan must have the right persona for the job. Dignity, respect, patience and ability to communicate are key traits in the kind of person needed.

“You will know if the job is for you, certainly, and you will know if the job is not,” Cathy said. “But coming into the caring profession, you must have caring, understanding and professionalism. You’ve got to give it; you’ve got to know it. You’ve got to build up a relationship with the person.”

‘WOW FACTOR’

Despite being challenging at times, Cathy described her role as unique in the sense of fulfilment that she derived from it. “I don’t want to use the word ‘rewarding’, because I’m not into that. It’s just a wow factor to be working with people that can give back to you,” she commented.

“It’s buzzing, it’s electrifying… it was just an honour,” Cathy summed up the last 47 years of friendship with those in her care. “It was just a huge honour, and I would like to thank them for allowing me into their life, and allowing me to do these wild activities with them!”

Having held a wonderful retirement party – fittingly celebrated in the impressive new Avista base at Roscrea’s old maltings site – Cathy is looking forward to having more time for foreign travel and plans to spend some quality time with her son Jack, who is currently living in the USA. She also intends travelling to Africa next year to volunteer in an orphanage, taking her vocation to work with those less fortunate to another level.

She will obviously miss all her colleagues and especially the service users, with whom she has built up such a visibly strong bond over the years. But she regards Avista as a “home from home” and said she would be regularly dropping in to greet everyone again.

“It’s not goodbye – nothing is goodbye with me,” Cathy laughed. “This is my life. This is my second home… Would I do it all again? Yes, absolutely.”