What We Do

Jack and Jill is a nationwide charity that funds and provides up to 100 hours per month of in-home nursing care and respite support to families caring for children, up to the age of six, with severe learning disability often associated with complex medical needs. Typically, these children may be tube fed, oxygen dependent, may not sleep, take seizures, need a lot of medication and require around-the-clock care. Understandably, their parents can be exhausted and need a break, which is where Jack and Jill comes in. Our service operates seven days a week, with no means test, no red tape and no waiting list. Another key part of our service is end-of-life-care for all children up to the age six, irrespective of diagnosis, empowering parents to take their child home to die at this most difficult time.

In 2024, Jack and Jill supported 539 families across Ireland with in-home nursing care and respite support. Today, there are 437 families under our care, and 3,153 families have been supported by Jack and Jill since 1997.

Click the button below to find out more about our referral criteria.

Referrals to Jack and Jill usually come from maternity hospitals, paediatric hospitals, Community Disability Network Teams or via family self-referrals, when it is obvious a child and family need support and may fall under Jack and Jill’s criteria.

Jack and Jill employs a core team consisting of two Heads of Nursing, 15 highly qualified and experienced Liaison Nurse Managers, backed up by the Nursing and Family Support Administrators. The nursing team has collectively over 100 years nursing experience between them. They act as case managers, who assess the child and the family’s unique situation and design a bespoke in-home nursing/respite care plan around the needs of the family.

Jack and Jill child with nurse

We always recognise the parents as the primary carers. We are in their home at their invitation to listen and assess their requirements. Once the child meets our criteria and the parents want to proceed, our Liaison Nurse Managers find and introduce local community nurses and carers to support the family from a pool of approximately 500 community nurses and carers and the charity provides the family with a donation required to cover the cost.

Our nursing care support and funding becomes part of the ongoing care regime for the family for up to six years. Every child we support is unique, as is every family situation, therefore our service is bespoke and designed around the family’s requirements, never forgetting the siblings who may also require extra time with their parents.

With over 20 pieces of medical equipment required to support these children at home, this essentially means intensive care at home for some families. Their parents need help and can’t ask family or friends to care for their child, given the complexity of their child’s condition so that they can have a break away from this ‘always on’ care regime.

Life is uncertain for these children, their conditions are rare, prognosis uncertain, hospital visits are frequent. However, we do know that Jack and Jill children can do better at home, because there’s no care like home care.

Parents often refer to our service as a ‘lifeline’ or their ‘gift of time’. Once the nurse or carer get to know the child and the family, parents become comfortable around leaving their home, knowing their child is well cared for at home. This is vital time out for the parents, so that they can recharge, take a much-needed rest, meet a friend for a coffee, spend quality time with other children or do some errands – the things some of us take for granted that are simply not feasible for the families under our care.

Any Questions?

Phone: +353 45 894 538 or Email: [email protected]