Ms Lauren Keogh:

Zara was seen to under the assessment of need initially. I had many concerns, all of which were dismissed. I was only referred to the child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, waiting list when I challenged it. I asked how observations from a professional could be dismissed. As I said, I was absolutely delighted because we were getting services and I thought they would come soon. We were put on that waiting list for 18 months. Two months into the wait, she developed anorexia and suicidal thoughts. As a result of that delay, she unnecessarily had to battle anorexia for over a year, purely because it was not a proactive approach, but reactive, which is the same in all the cases mentioned here today. That is a big thing that I need to stress coming here. It is very reactive, and even at that, there is barely a reaction. People are shouting and screaming but no one is listening. There is much waste.

Zara had her first psychology appointment two weeks ago, with the disability team. She should have had it a long time ago when we were first referred for assessment of need, but because we were hopped from one waiting list to another, after two and a half years, she had her first appointment. I was sitting outside waiting for her, and I was flicking through a magazine. I came across this fabulous article about a website the HSE has. It is called informingfamilies.ieand it is fantastic. All the information is there. Parents do not know about it. Professionals dealing with this do not know about it. The amount of information on that website is unbelievable. It is a huge resource. One can tell much work has gone into it. It was set up in 2009, reviewed in 2015, and to this day, and I have plenty of contacts in this circle of special needs parents, nobody knows about it. It is a huge waste. It would have been very beneficial if people had been told about it. Such things are not proactive, but are very reactive.