Mr. Wayne McSweeney:

Our story was much the same. For years, we fumbled about in the dark. Services were very intermittent. I was offered an opportunity to take part in a focus group for ParentsPlus, which I thought was just another one of these things thrown at us that would not offer any support. I said I would go because I thought there would be someone there to whom I could complain, give out or vent. We met 14 other people there who were very similar to us and whose experiences mirrored ours. As Ms Kerrigan said, it was a very safe space to be. We could say the things we had been thinking and did not wish anybody else to hear. We could share our worries and anxieties.

The beautiful thing about the course was that there were 14 experts from a range of different areas that we could tap into. Everybody there was at a different stage in their journey. Some children were aged six or seven so their parent or parents were just at the beginning, others were in the middle and there were people at the end. It was funny to have 14 or 16 people, some of whom had experienced negative home lives, social lives and all of that, all laughing like children because they had found their tribe. They understood us and we understood them. There was a great sharing of information and this felt like progress where for years there did not seem to be any progress. It was ours and something we could share with the people in the room. The group was an invaluable experience.