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Welcome to St. Joseph's House for Adult Deaf & Deafblind
For over forty fours years it has been our privilege to care for the needs of our residents, most of whom had been educated in St. Mary's School or St. Joseph's School. We presently have 35 people living at St. Joseph's House. The Catholic Institute established our organization for Deaf People who required suitable accommodation and support, at the request of the then Archbishop of Dublin, the late +John Charles McQuaid. The Dominican Sisters were entrusted with the responsibility of managing the house and to provide for the needs of residents. Which they diligently did until the appointment of the first lay Director in 2002. We endeavour to care for all our residents, cherishing the uniqueness of each person in a warm and homely atmosphere. Over the years, the accommodation needs increased and additional one-storey buildings were erected adjacent to the main building. These include the St.Vincent's and Deafblind accommodation, each with common rooms and kitchen facilities; and Deafblind library, services office with Braille & Moon printing and our activities centre (The Kinsella Centre). We have a dedicated team of nurses, care assistants, activities coordinator and a social worker dedicated to our Deafblind residents. Also a reflexologist, professional chefs, laundry and domestic staff, all with a wealth of experience and expertise, are available to each of our residents. We welcome both day visitors and volunteers on a regular basis, especially to assist in our daily activation programmes and outings. We operate a Key-working system that allows us to cater for each resident's individual needs. This individual attention in a relaxed, friendly and caring atmosphere, facilitates the individual resident's specific needs, wishes and desires. We offer a variety of daily activities for our residents, which you can view via the link on the top left of this page and as a community we organize an annual holiday. We use a variety of communication methods. Our centre aims at total Irish Sign Language (ISL), but we also use Adapted Manual Communication based on the BSL spelling system, and ‘Block' for non-Signing visitors. We are currently participating in two Leonardo Di Vinci projects:- One that aims to increase Deafblind awareness. This is in conjunction with NCBI (National Council for the Blind of Ireland), DeafHear & VISIO (The Netherlands)
- Secondly, a *five* country cooperation to improve the provision of care for Deaf people with additional needs, and to identify "Best Practice"
director@stjosephsdeafblind.ie
