Julie Anne Cunneen lives with her 16-year old son Liam at Upper Glanmire in Co Cork.
Liam has severe ADHD, autism, severe dyslexia, dyspraxia, hypermobility and a mild learning disability.
He also has a number of complex medical conditions, including arthritis.
Julie Anne also has severe arthritis, Crohn's Disease and other medical conditions that affect her balance and mobility.
Both Liam and Julie Anne are profoundly deaf and both live in constant pain.
Julie Anne puts her pain between eight and nine on a scale of one to 10; she says Liam's pain is at a seven or an eight.
Their family is completed by Liam's autism service dog, Skye, a six-year-old labrador retriever.
At its most understated, life is challenging. Very clearly, though, the bond between mother and son sustains both.
Liam's 16th birthday has just passed. Julie Anne has parented him every day of those 16 years.
She says that, in that time, she has never had access to overnight respite care for Liam.
She has asked the HSE for it, regularly. But she says she has never got it.
Julie Anne says she adores every inch of Liam.
"Liam is a beautiful, blue-eyed, very tall teenager. I love him to bits," she declares.
"I love everything about him. He is adventurous; he loves being outdoors; he loves the beach and the water. He loves swimming. We normally have a great relationship. We have a great bond.
"I suppose we have some things in common, like the deafness and the arthritis, so I suppose that bonds us in a very unique way, as a mother and son."
Overwhelmed
Liam is on medication for his ADHD. Sometimes, Julie Anne says, it does not work as well as it needs to.
He can become overwhelmed by his environment. When that happens, he can lash out.
Liam is over 1.82m (6ft) tall. Julie Ann is 1.62m (5'4").
She says she is often on the receiving end when he lashes out.
When she is, there is no one there to help.
"It's quite hard as a parent to describe your child's worst days," Julie Anne says.
"Liam has quite severe ADHD. Sometimes the medication that Liam is on doesn't work as well as it needs to.
"It means that Liam can be very impulsive and very hyper, not quite able to regulate his emotions as well as other people can regulate theirs.
"So Liam can fly into what we call meltdowns very, very fast. What a meltdown looks like is somebody losing complete control of themselves, getting very, very aggressive, very angry, (you) not being able to reason with the person and say 'that's not normal behaviour; that's not acceptable behaviour; you need to calm down'.
"That type of talk wouldn't work. He's gone so beyond you that you couldn't calm him."
Julie Anne says Liam is going through a particularly difficult period at the moment.
He could have a number of episodes every week. Julie Anne is getting hurt, regularly.
She is being supported, but she does not feel this support is adequate to address the needs of her situation.
Julie Anne feels this is particularly so in relation to access to overnight respite services.
"I suppose, Liam's worst days, he could get physically violent," she says.
"He could attack me and hit me. He could injure me quite badly.
"He could do damage to the property. He could break things in the car. He could attack me while I'm driving.
"He could pick up the crutch while I'm driving the car and start hitting me in the back of the head with the crutch. He could smash windows in the house.
"It could take anything up to three to five hours for him to calm down."
Julie Anne added: "There have been incidents where the guards have had to be called to try and help calm Liam down. So, it's been a frightening experience where there has been really no support.
"I can't call CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services); you can't call the services; you can't call anybody other than the guards.
"And the guards are arriving, going 'OK, your child has needs - what do you want us to do with him'.
"And if your child ends up in A&E, A&E will bounce him back and say 'well, are you going to take him home'.
"Then you take him back home again and you are at risk again."
'Begging the HSE for help'
Julie Anne describes herself as being in a situation where she is constantly trying to manage Liam and his emotions.
"I am walking on eggshells, to be quite honest with you," she says.
So Julie Anne walks on eggshells and nurses her injuries, which are often quite serious.
She has been knocked unconscious. When she regained consciousness, she took something for pain relief and got on with it.
She currently has an injury to her ribs. She says she's getting on with it.
She says that after asking and begging the HSE for help, she feels that nobody is listening to her.
Julie Anne says she feels invisible. She says she feels worthless.
"I am dealing with an incredible amount of pain in my body," Julie Anne says, "and I am trying my best to send emails, to write to people, to contact ministers, to contact anybody I can think of for support and then, to get no response, to get nobody to come back and say 'OK, yes, we are going to help you; of course we understand what you are going through; we can see what you are going through'.
"So, OK, yes: I am invisible. Otherwise they would get back to me, wouldn't they?
"I must be invisible because all these risk assessments have been written.
"They have done, I think at this point, four or five risk assessments outlining the danger that I am in from not having respite, not having the supports.
"My doctor has written and said I am at full-carer burnout at this point. So I am being ignored."
'Beyond her limit'
Julie Anne feels she is at her limit. And sometimes she feels she is beyond her limit.
"What happens when nobody listens," Julie Anne asks.
"What happens when you have sent all the emails, and you have contacted the ministers, and you have contacted everyone you can possibly think of in the HSE and you have reached your limit, and you are saying 'I can't go on like this anymore, I can't live like this anymore, but nobody is actually responding, nobody is listening to the fact that you are at your limit'? Well, you have got nothing else left.
"I can't take being hit and bruised and battered, and I cannot take that there is no support there."
RTÉ News is aware that Julie Anne's appeals for overnight respite services for Liam have been acknowledged, noted and escalated by members of the Children's Disability Network Team assigned to her, that the risks to her have been noted in a number of forms known as Disability Supports Application Management Tools and that these have been escalated to the HSE.
To date, Julie Anne says she has not been able to access overnight respite services for Liam.
RTÉ News put a series of questions to the HSE's Cork Kerry Community Healthcare in relation to Julie Anne's case, quoting her that after she had begged for help she got no response and that this made her feel that nobody was listening to her and that, as a result, she said she felt invisible and worthless.
RTÉ News had permission from Julie Anne - on her and on Liam's behalf - to raise these questions.
In a statement in response, a spokesperson said: "Cork Kerry Community Healthcare cannot comment on anyone's individual circumstances, as we have an obligation to protect their privacy.
"Disability Services are available to follow up directly with service users and their families on any issues that are brought to their attention."
