Longford's St Christophers bid farewell to Pauline Davis after 29 years

St Christopher's Services is gearing up to bid farewell to their Head of Day Services Pauline Davis this Friday.

After a long and successful twenty-nine years Pauline is retiring. She has been a part of so much change throughout the three decades she spent working there, and now is looking forward to the next phase of her life.

St Christopher's Services was established in 1964, it would be another thirty-two years until Pauline first walked through the doors as an employee in 1996.

Her interest in working with people with intellectual disabilities started in her school years.

“I started, as a TY student with the Brothers of Charity in Roscommon.

“We went down from school on a Wednesday afternoon as part of work experience with people with special needs or intellectual disabilities and it sprung from there,” Pauline recalled fondly as she sat in her office that is covered with artwork made by service users and cards that say “sorry you’re leaving.”

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There were pictures on the shelves and walls of her colleagues and service users, all with big smiles, it’s clear, she will be missed.

Her TY work experience set her on the path that would lead to a long and influential career.

“I went on and trained as a nurse in RNID which is registered nurse of intellectual disability and management of healthcare services.

“After that, I spent 10 years working in children’s services in a Child Education Development Centre, then I moved on to St Christopher’s in 1996.

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“So I’ve been here since.”

St Christopher’s has changed a lot since Pauline first started, in fact, the service provider is almost unrecognisable now three decades on, thanks to the hard work of both St Christopher’s board of directors, management, staff and service users.

“It was a much smaller service, while I say much smaller, there were 80 service users in total at the time and there was a manager of the services and that was Patrick O’Toole.

“I came in to help with the operations of the services and that’s where it started.

“It was just by chance that I went for the job in St Christopher’s and I met the criteria, I came into the role of a services officer which managed day and residential services at the time.

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“At that stage, all of the day services were here on-site on the Battery Road and there were two residential services.

“The day services when I came here in 1996 were all on-site.

“At that stage, there were no respite services and they were developed in 2003-2004.”

The service now has 20 locations throughout the County. The expansion of the services is a direct result of policy changes in the delivery of day services which included the de-congregation of larger institutions.

“At that stage, services were more geared toward grouped care with low staffing ratios,” explained Pauline, “Today we are it’s more geared toward person-centred care as reflected in the interim standards for new directions.

New Directions are the national standards for day services and are implemented in all HSE-funded day services.

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“We have built a lot of connections with the community over the years.

“We would be very well known in Longford through work experience, people employed in local businesses, and our involvement in local leisure, arts and cultural activities.

“Longford Westmeath ETB also provides a lot of adult educational support and opportunities.

“There was always an openness and a willingness for businesses and organisations to include the service users and this has been a great asset to St Christopher's.”

The service users of St Christophers have always been vital contributors to the Longford community.

In the 90s there were several occupational services available for St Christopher’s clients to take part in, these included woodwork, sewing, knitting, catering, and contract cleaning.

The cloth spun in the knitting and sewing classes was an incredibly vital resource for airlines and thus was sold off to companies like Aer Lingus, Tara Mines and local businesses. Now the variety of options available to service users are incredibly varied, and more importantly, up to the service users themselves whether they engage or not.

Throughout Pauline's time at St Christopher’s, she has seen many developments in the way service users have been empowered to make decisions for themselves.

The Assisted Decision Making Act is the most major change in the last few years.

“The big thing in 2024 was the Assisted Decision-making Act following the United Nations Convention of Rights for People with Disabilities has been a massive thing because now we have legislation to support what service providers are saying.

“The capacity act means that the service users are the decision-makers, up until then it was their parents who were making the decisions. A parent won't make a wrong decision for you, but it's not your decision.

“Parents are still a big part of people's lives, but at the same time the decision maker is the person themselves.”

Along with this, another change Pauline has seen throughout her almost thirty years in St Christopher's is the change in staffing numbers and capacity for service users and how supports are provided to individuals.

“This reflects the investment that has been made in services in the past three decades.”

The number of service users has jumped from 80 to 124 adults, the staff has grown from around 15 to a whopping 100.

Day services are more individualised and most importantly communication is key, it is vital to try and understand one another and listen, a fundamental tool in St Christopher’s, and everyday life.

Pauline Davis has been such an important figure in St Christopher's, both the staff and service users will feel her absence and she theirs.

“What I'll miss most will be the people,” she said, wistfully, “In St Christopher's what makes it special is you could be having a bad day and a service user will come up to say hello, tell you a story and change everything.”