Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

Disability Issues Update: Minister of State at the Department of Health

9:30 am

Photo of Kathleen LynchKathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In the primary care sector there will be 260 additional posts, 52 of which will be in speech and language services because this is the area where there have been the greatest difficulties. It is to build up primary care teams, a process which will continue with the €20 million allocated.

We took a particular view of the waiting list for CAMHS, child and adolescent mental health services, at the start of the year. We discovered that there were over 200 who should not have been on the list and should have been dealt with in primary care services. Accordingly, we are developing a programme in child and adolescent psychological services to be delivered in the primary care sector. I admit it took a little time to get the two groups together. Now that they are together, it is incredible the amount of work they are doing. We will be delivering much of the programme in the primary care sector rather than having people move into acute units which, in some instances, are not suitable for them. This will be included in the service plan.

We have looked at the issue of deafblindness, a matter in which Deputy Mary Mitchell O’Connor is very interested. We are not inclined to have a specific definition because, if we did, there would have to be specific definitions for other conditions. It would also raise issues about the questions included in the census and the database. While there are particular difficulties around it, we are not inclined to go down that road. I realise that for people who are deaf and blind and may have additional difficulties also, there will have to be extra and specific specialised supports put in place for them.

The launch yesterday of the preschool programme took place with Child Vision and the Learning Tree, organisations which do an incredible job in this area, not just with those who are visually impaired but also with a range of children with disabilities.

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