Christine is the mother of a daughter diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was three-years-old. She admits she is frustrated.Her daughter who is now aged 22 along with many other adults with special needs has limited access to support services, like physical, occupational and speech therapy on the Island and according to doctors in Boston, Massachusetts, her development has begun to deteriorate.Christine, who asked that her real name not be used, said it’s been a long and hard fight over the past two decades to get her daughter the attention and support she deserves. In fact, she believes the problem is getting worse and fears what it will be like in another five or ten years.She spoke to The Royal Gazette in lead up to a public discussion held tomorrow at XL House, which was recently renamed after former CEO Brian O’Hara, focusing on the challenges that exist in the special needs community.“You know the saying it takes a village to raise a child? For a special needs person it takes a country. It’s not just loving that child, that child needs extra care, not short term, but long term because this doesn’t go away.“Some people think ‘you are born with it so you just live with it’. You may be normal, but it doesn’t mean you are always going to be normal. If you get into an accident you can be in the same shoes I am in today.“If we all get together and work together we can achieve a lot more. Just being aware of the needs of other people, it doesn’t cost any money, it doesn’t cost a thing.”Christine’s daughter is currently at The Orange Valley Centre, a care facility for adults with special needs, which was moved from a site on Parson’s Lane in Devonshire, to a building at the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute in 2003.The move was supposed to be temporary, but eight years later they are still there.“It’s not appropriate, the facilities are inadequate. There is no space. There is a hall with a stage that is where we are. There is no big kitchen for them to learn how to cook, no storage room for walkers and treadmills for them to do more exercise.“They should be doing more exercise because these children gain weight more easily because if they are not active they are not going to lose what they eat. There is only so much the nutritional side can do.”Another issue that the adult special needs have is a lack of support services, including physical and speech “at least to sustain what they have learned and we need to do better for these children”.Christine said her daughter has actually been losing skills, such as movement with her hands, since leaving the Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy, where she was getting regular therapies.“The next few years it’s only going to get worse because we already have parents on the waiting list for Orange Valley and [the other care facility] Opportunity Workshop because they have no more space. They are full to capacity and can’t accept any more children.“Parents have to give up work, but how are they going to pay for the services? We still have to buy diapers and medications. It’s very expensive.”As a parent she said she felt “very frustrated” to be fighting for the same things as she was nearly two decades ago.“I feel like I wasted my time, why did I work so hard for 20 years and 20 years later we are going back again? “Christine said the special needs community in Bermuda was very secluded. “We are not a priority and that is what I am hoping this meeting would bring these issues out.”The mother said it was heartbreaking to watch her daughter struggling on a day-to-day basis.“These children have to deal with so many limitations every day. We need to give them comfort and happiness and a chance to do some things for themselves.“You wouldn’t believe how happy they get when they do achieve something. The happiness is worth more than a million dollars and they are simple things.“My daughter realises her limitations when she looks at someone running or jumping she wants to do that but knows she can’t. What I am trying to do is make her fight a little more comfortable. We need to do better for them.”Christine said all these young people are asking for is a good chance in life. She encouraged people to help first by attending the Special Needs Care Dialogue tomorrow at XL House from 6pm.