Limerick Profile -- Máire O’Leary, CEO, St Gabriels

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Written by Rachael Finucane

Wednesday, 20 May 2009

NEARLY 500 children from the Mid-West benefit from the services at St Gabriel's School and Centre and it has just added a state of the art hydrotherapy pool to its facilities, according to CEO, MÃ¡ire O'Leary.
   Cork-native MÃ¡ire began working with St Gabriel's in the early nineties.
   “I originally trained as an occupational therapist and I was lucky to get a job with St Gabriel's, which was based in St Joseph's Street. I worked as a senior occupational therapist until the year 2000 when Wyn Crabtree retired as the manager and I took on that role, which further evolved into CEO. We've been based in Dooradoyle since 1997 and we built on again in 2005. This April, we opened the third phase, which includes the hydrotherapy pool and new children's services,” she explained.
   “It has evolved over the years to meet the developing needs of children with disabilities in the mid-west. The old premises wasn't purpose built so the building in 1997 was a huge improvement and that has continued to grow. We see ourselves as one of the best providers of services in the region. A lot of that is down to people donating money.”
   MÃ¡ire added that JP McManus is one of the school's biggest supporters and some of the pool's â‚¬4.6m funding came from his 2005 Pro-Am.
   “We also work closely with the Department of Education and HSE West. It's a huge advantage to be able to provide families with hydrotherapy and the pool is also available to pupils and to outside individuals doing physical therapy. We began planning and fundraising for it around 2000. It's a wonderful facility.”
   She added that the spirit of Wyn-daughter of St Gabriel's founder, Arthur-is ever present in the school.
   “Although Wyn passed away recently, she got to see the pool in use. We felt she was with us at the official opening. She was one of the main drivers behind St Gabriel's and people like that, giving time and goodwill, keep us going.”
   St Gabriel's encompasses several services. The school has 40 pupils, aged from four to 18 years, with physical and sensory and/or multiple disabilities. It has a high pupil to teacher ratio at 6:1 and each child is taught using an individual plan.
   “The staff are supported by a team of clinical staff including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, nurses, psychologists and social workers. The other part of our work is through Limerick Child Services through the 'Treehouse Teams'. We have an early intervention team that supports children with disabilities aged up to six years old as well as a school-age team working with mainstream and specialist schools. Over 450 children use those services,” she said.
   “When a child is just born or just diagnosed with a disability, there is always more to be done. Parents need a lot of support and we work to find what is best for every child. Some choose mainstream schools but no family should see it as a failure if their child needs a special school. The important thing is to find the best environment where the child can excel. We also work in partnership with the HSE, the Brothers of Charity, Enable Ireland and St Joseph's and share certain resources and look at the best use for funding.”
   She added that fundraising work by marketing executive, Kate Sheahan, is ongoing.
   “People in the city and locality are extraordinarily generous but we have volunteers as far out as Templeglantine. They come to us with different events. We will hold our first ladies' lunch in Dromoland Castle today and we recently a successful golf classic. Corporate donations are down but thankfully we're still supported by individuals. You would hope that the most vulnerable people are not the ones suffering because of cutbacks. The situation has improved and although no new services might be introduced, we are always striving to go forward and not backwards.”
   For more information, see www.stgabriels.ie.

   Name: MÃ¡ire O'Leary
   Occupation: CEO, St Gabriels
   Location: Dooradoyle
   Favourite thing about Limerick: Everything but I really love the rugby and the atmosphere it creates.
   Worst thing about Limerick: That it's not nearer the sea.

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